I Will Love What I Love … And Social Media

 

I have the Witness within me that observes and the Synthesizer within that makes sense and organizes themes from what  has been witnessed. This week was an odd one for me.

Sunday I spoke at Lake Havasu Center for Spiritual Living on “For God so loved the World.” I shared my inner turmoil with updating a long held cultural idea that Jesus died to save my sins and God let it happen because I was so loved. Two earlier posts speak to this false understanding unfurling (Super Bowl and a Lot More is in the Air and Love with an Adult Understanding). I came to appreciate many of the cultural perils and tragedies that have come through this linked belief. Linking love, suffering, and death is inaccurate at best and can be harmful in our collective shared thought pool.

Immediately after the talk a woman in her sixties approached me to say it was the best talk she had ever heard. I get feedback like this often; a shared idea resonates for someone and they become “lit up.” She was moved by the candor, inquiry, transparency, and relatedness for her. I received her feedback fully. I typically don’t give weight to feedback as it is not about me — it is about the listener — what they hear and of what they make meaning. I decided long ago that feedback wasn’t my business. Yet, I took this feedback in. I ingested it. I believed it. I honored my half of the delivery and have carried that with me throughout the week.

Once home from Havasu, I crawled in bed to tend to my body which had been sick all month and was still tired. I wrote all day Monday and taught Monday night. Slept all day Tuesday. And the remainder of the week I gathered up insights and rapid revelations between long naps and meetings. One such meeting was with a visioning group who has been envisioning a new spiritual community in Scottsdale which may open sometime this calendar year. A large portion of our time together was discussing how and where communication and intimacy show up within today’s technological culture.

Then, I worked for an hour with a social media strategist. Mmm, hmmm. And there is something about social media I am bucking up against and not liking. Feels a bit slimy and manipulative; and there are so many mediums. Get this. Social

media’s algorithms value my on-line contribution by views, likes, comments, and re-posts. To increase these, I am to be on-line more in conversation and dialog “feeding” the system in order to “stay viable.” In other words, being a cyber, social butterfly. And yet, I spent decades learning to hear and value my own voice/wisdom and honor my contemplative self allowing me to give talks like the one in Havasu that opened and inspired. I also learned I’m suppose to drop anyone on Twitter who won’t follow me back as it shows I’m the not popular girl trying to make friends with people who don’t like me. Guess who is in that category? President Obama, Oprah, Hilary Clinton, and Huffington Post. I want to keep following them; this is where I make exemptions and create my own rules.

And, I’m choosing to embrace social media. There is something within it that is intimate, bonds and builds. I want to be in the conversation and contribute. It isn’t an all or nothing proposition; it is more where, what, and how.

Tonight I sit with an internal jumbled self. I know I will settle and clarity will ensue. I know what is mine to do and not to do will be made known to me and can always morph. In the meanwhile, I live open to the Infinite Presence that never changes and technology which changes quicker than I can stroke the keys on my laptop. I commit to going to sleep tonight loving what I love; which is writing and talking about The Mystery I call God, The Presence or Infinite Love; plus leaving the world a better place than when I entered it. All subjective and not as measurable as the likes, comments and re-posts on my pages.

What would Emerson do?