Some of you will have read a piece on sexting a while back. Here’s the ‘how-to’ follow up.
So before we start into it, I want you to know that I do understand that some parents would rather stick a needle in their ear that talk about sex or sexting, even to each other! But the somewhat annoying reality it this – we are the grown ups and it’s our job to do this.
Otherwise porn will do it for you.
‘Nudes’ and ‘three-ways’ are already part of the vernacular for the average thirteen year old.
It’s a good thing to resign when one makes an error – it’s part of political life and we all understand that. And we all like an apology – if it rings true. Right?
The first social media post I saw this morning was from a colleague. She has a substantial social media following and a successful training career. Her status read “As*holes in Dublin Yesterday. WTF!”
Attached was a photograph was protestors in Dublin gathered in their thousands on the city streets protesting the abhorrent display of racial violence in the US. The world is stunned. And rightly so. Trump’s response is almost unbelievable, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about today – it’s too depressing and way beyond my control.
But were these people assholes? All 5000+ of them?? Maybe some of them were… maybe they were just looking for an excuse to get out and meet their friends in the sun and they hid behind a cause… only they know! But a lot of her page followers were not happy.
You may be tiring of me saying this – I’m not just saying it to you though, I’m saying it to myself too. We are all getting really good at being judgey these days. I’ve heard my own voice giving out about people coming to local beaches, not staying away from me, coming too close to me in shops.
Yes, we have restrictions. If I’m honest I’d feel a lot safer and warmer towards my fellow humans if we could all respect these restrictions. But I’m conscious of our individual and collective needs, like I mentioned in my last piece (yup, I’m definitely repeating myself).
People trying to meet their needs is at the root of everything we are witnessing. Everything.
We all need to feel a sense of power, freedom, fun and connection. The usual ways we meet these needs have been eroded recently. And we are undergoing a threat to our very lives – so we are scared. Which means we’re ratty, intolerant, hyper-vigilant, angry.
Then we see something happen that magnifies these feelings – like the death of George Floyd. It’s something else that really matters, and it’s an almost welcome diversion. It’s something else that’s bigger than us that we can join together and feel strongly about – except THIS time we might be able to feel we have agency. We can protest. We might even create enough momentum to cause change. It’s a feeling we need, a sense of power, autonomy, connection.
And good luck protesting a virus…
I’m not saying I agree with flouting restrictions and thereby putting peoples’ lives at risk (which is exactly what happened in my opinion) but I AM saying I understand why it happened. Sometimes we as humans feel we have to make a choice – FEEL we have to. And we might feel we need to choose one need over another. And those of us who make a different choice are frightened by that. Of course we are! And what do you do when you are threatened?
Well if you’re of the same species as I then you either go on the defense or offence. For me, that’ll be either in my judgey head where I’ll curse and silently roar at the guy who picked his nose with his gloved hand in the supermarket while veering so close to me I could smell that he had a cigarette recently – or it’ll come out of my mouth when I’m talking to friends and I’ll proclaim that EVERYONE’s coming to the beach here and NONE of them are practicing social distancing … (patently untrue).
Another piece I saw this morning was about how many people were gathered in the Lough in Cork this morning – and “why isn’t Leo doing something about that?”
What exactly is Leo supposed to do about that I wondered? Are we not capable of making our own decisions? Would those people feel contented if we invited fascism and had a police state monitoring our every movement?
Social economics research shows us that if people feel trusted we behave, on the whole, better than if we are policed heavily.
The problem is not Leo or whoever has the misfortune to be in government during these challenging times in whatever country. The problem is that people feel disempowered, isolated and scared and want to forget that for a while. Again I’m not saying it’s acceptable, just understandable.
We all feel better for a few seconds when we blame other people, or the government. But it’s fragile and temporary. We would serve ourselves better by having compassion and very importantly, by taking personal responsibility. Human rights are important and we do need to act together to promote change.
But how do we choose which is more important? Global race issues, human rights or health issues? Are they even separate things? Do we have to choose whos’ lives are more important? How on earth do we grapple with dilemmas like this?
I don’t have the answers. Maybe there are no answers. We’re all fumbling in the dark here.
That therapist called people assholes on her business Facebook Page and she was taken to task by many for doing so. I sat to write this and searched for her post to make sure I quoted her correctly. I was dismayed to find that she had taken the post down. She was silenced. I would have liked if she left it up. Not to lay herself open to attack but to show that she, like all of us, is prone to judgement, criticism and fear. It was a true teaching moment, and it’s lost. But that’s fine for me to say.
I get why she deleted it. If only we could delete everything we regretted or made us vulnerable to the judgment and wrath (ie fear) of others.
Each of us can look after our own fear, our own actions and take ownership of these things. We’ll slip, as I do, as she did, as the guy who picked his nose did. But that’s human. There aren’t as many as*holes out there as you may sometimes think. Let’s just look after ourselves and each other as best we can. This will all be over some day.
Minutes ago I was wandering around the kitchen wondering what to write about for this week’s issue of the East Cork Journal. I fully intended to avoid the “C-word” but then I saw this article. I can’t resist a good mnemonic – and when the author (Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap) then generously gave permission to share it – well, I couldn’t resist. So here it is, edited heavily, full version link below.
There is a lot of talk of romance and relationships at this time of year isn’t there? I usually aim for submitting a piece here or somewhere online about Valentine’s Day before the actual day – kinda missed the boat on that one this year!
But actually, to be honest, I think I did that on purpose… subconsciously at least. Because I see Valentine’s Day as having too great a potential for acting as a glossing over, a box ticking exercise much like some of the other Hallmark Days we celebrate. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE a bit of slushy mushy romance! My hubby got me a stone from my favourite beach and painted a heart on it and that was me gone weak! Utterly!
Where do we draw the line when people treat us poorly?
This is a quandary faced by many. Particularly if we have a fear of hurting people or being rejected by them. We like to be liked. We need to be liked. But at what cost?
We tend to ruminate a lot on questions like “Why do people mistreat me? How can I make them change? What can I do differently?”
I’ve been meaning to talk about guilt for some time now.
It just keeps coming up. I hear the word everywhere – don’t you? “Oh I feel so guilty now but sure I’ll eat less tomorrow…” or “Oh I can’t not go I’d feel awful “, “Addicted to Netflix? LOL – me too – guilty as charged!”
We’re joking, but we probably mean it. We feel guilty.
We’re trying to buy a house at the moment and there’s been a lot of talk about boundaries. It’s a word I just can’t seem to get away from at the moment! Maps, walls, elections, referendums, therapy … Clear boundaries are crucial to smooth transactions, good legislation, good mental health – the list is long. And gets longer the more you think about it!
What to do… what to do…
I’d imagine myself ruminating over the same thing if I had a daughter with ‘the tattoo itch’. But then being someone who has veered (well, purposefully steered) down the tattoo route herself I might be something of a big oul’ hypocrite if I were to dodge a conversation about this one.
So I organised my thoughts and wrote this for Family Friendly HQ – click if this is relevant to you – and if it is – good luck!#
