I have gone off Facebook about three years ago, with hardly a look back. One of the main reasons for doing so was the Trump Administration, and the divisiveness of President Trump, himself. He was making America into whatever the hell he thought it was, and that was not the America I was raised up in. Don’t get me wrong, the attitudes predate him, but they were brought to the fore under him, and he normalized what was once abnormal. As his Presidency progressed, the attitudes of people on Facebook got worse and worse, till “trolls” became a political party. I finally decided I had had enough of that. I wish not, because there have been so many people there that I have adored and got along with. But I always felt a pang of guilt getting rid of someone on my friend list that I could not bear to hear anymore, because I knew I was going into an echo-chamber of my own ideals and my own truth, and the lack of challenge to my point of view was a way of isolating my thoughts and limiting my own understanding. Yet, there was the assholistic nature of so many of the Trump supporters.
I tried to draw the line at decency, and I tried to keep involved with others, but eventually I decided it just was not worth it. Most of the people I know on Facebook are unlikely to show up at my funeral, even if we were to all live in the same town. But my wife, and my kids, on the other hand… I wanted to devote myself to them, to not sya to them “just a minute” when all I was doing was responding to some troll or ‘talking’ to someone who I have never personally even met. That’s when I left Facebook behind, not cling my account, but at least walking willingly away so I could be involved in my life, and I could sleep better at night, thus be even better involved in my own life.
We have a new President now, and I no longer feel that pit in my stomach when I do wake up in the middle of the night, wondering what the President is thinking up and about to Tweet while sat on the toilette devising how to stir up the country and anger half the population, in what I believe was his means of manipulating the stock market at will, and for his own personal benifit. I have no proof of that, and it is just my own suspicion. With a new man in Office, and though he is not my man for the job, I can at least sleep knowing that we finally have someone competant at governance in place, and that he worries about the American people, and not all the time himself and only himself.
So, it is time to move forward. I have broken the Facebook habit, and I am happy about that. There are new habits to form that should be made to improve my life in more ways now. I have a fair desire to rework this little bit of farm land and help Missus grow the things she wants to have for natural supplies for her crafts. That said, we will be taking this year off of some of our outdoor growing, and redesigning the place, and hopefully getting it ready for the following year and some mass production.
My next steps are to get to work on the repairs we need, the redesign we will do, and the work on making the place the way we want it. There are a lot of things that have been put off for far too long, and it is time to aggressively move forward on them. I am not getting any younger.
I do look forward to spring and wood gathering. I probably should have been going down already as there has been a drought, and no snow, but tomorrow is forecast for 2 to 5 inches of it, so that is probably out. Winter blues. It always drags me down in the middle of it. I get chomping at the bit to get to it, and have weather and frozen ground and plants preventing it.
Time to have a Guinness Extra Stout and call it an evening, I guess.