I think the cover photo of me on my Facebook page indicates I'm an old man, who uses a laptop and likes dogs and nature.
Yesterday brought a friend request from a young oriental woman whose Facebook page indicates she lives in Birmingham, but is from a foreign country. I accepted her friend request and she immediately private messaged me and it went from there.
JeanieHello, my friend, how is your day?MeI didn’t go extinct, yet.Jeaniei don't understand what you mean, friendI mean how was your day?
MeI told you.JeanieOk, what did you do today, friend?MeWrote, played chess online, talked on the phone, ate lunch in a restaurant, took a nap, showered, watched golf tournaments on TV, movies tonight, and more chess.
JeanieIt's rich, can you write? What kind of books do you usually write?You usually watch golf tournaments, I think you usually go to play with your friends, right?
MeDid you check out what I post on Facebook before you sent me a friend request? Several links to free reads of some of my books and blogs. Might take you a month or several months to read it all.JeanieNo, I think it's easier for me to understand you if you tell me yourself4:23 AM todayMeI’m a writer. What I write explains me. You would know that, if you read what I post on my FB page, and you would know from that if I’m someone you really want as a friend. For some reason, I get new FB friend requests every day from people who don’t seem to know anything about me, including what I post on FB. I used to delete such requests. Then, I had a dream that left me feeling maybe I should accept such requests, and if they turned out to be spam or gamey, I could unfriend them. I’m kinda like someone from another planet, who got stuck here for a while, who wishes the mother ship will come back and fetch him. Meanwhile, I write, sometimes I do podcasts, sometimes I do other things. I demonstrate that at my FB page. Perhaps there is a cosmic reason you found me, beyond what I put on my FB. If so, it will reveal itself.
4:53 AM TodayMeI wonder if some people see my FB page and become curious, perhaps they view me as a strange creature in a zoo? My FB info shows I am an old man. I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and this is where I was born and raised and went to school. A while back, a fellow living in the Bessemer area, about 14 miles west of Birmingham, sent me a friend request. His FB page indicated he was an evangelical Christian, in that he put something most days on his FB about his relationship with Jesus, God and the Bible, and how that was so important for him and other people. So, he posted something one day, and I responded by asking him if he was having direct experiences with God, Jesus, angels known in the Bible, because I was. He said he did, by reading the Bible. That really didn't answer my question, so I kept probing, and I kept getting the same answer. He kept calling me his friend in what he wrote to me. I wasn't sure he would do that, if he was reading what I was putting on my FB, or if he sat down somewhere and talked with me a while. Three days ago, he posted on this FB that he, his wife and their children were being attacked horribly by Satan, and he asked for his FB friends to pray for him and his family. He did not explain in what way Satan was attacking them. I wondered what actually was going on, but I remained silent. The next day, he posted a meme tearing up President Biden and his son Hunter. It was the first time I had seen anything political from him, but it did not surprise me, because where I live, Evangelicals are certain the Democrats and President Biden are communists and work for the Devil and Donald Trump was sent to them by God to save them from the Democrats and Satan. So, I replied to this fellow's post, by saying something like, based on what all I read in online news and see in TV news, Hunter Biden might be as sorry as Trump, and Hunter got to where he is because of his father's influence as President Obama's Vice President, and later via his father's influence as President. And, I think the Republicans should take to heart what Jesus said in the Gospels, "Hypocrite, first take the beam. out of your own eye," and they should deal with Trump, and the Democrats should take that same passage to heart, and they should deal with the Bidens. This fellow in the Bessemer area commented back that I should wake up, Trump was not close to as bad as the Bidens. As I was typing a reply, he unfriended me. I tried to find his FB page, and did not find it. Now if you are wondering if I am a Christian. The answer is, No. I was raised in that religion, and I left it, but still believed God existed and Jesus was who I was taught he was. I had other experiences. Then, I had experiences that proved beyond any doubt that God exists, that Jesus exists, that angels in the Bible exist, that the Devil exists, and that human beings, in the main, have no clue what is really going on. I was turned every which a way but loose, and upside down and inside out, and was stood before endless mirrors, looking at me. That still is going on. Looking at the beams in my own eye. Which does not seem to be a particularly popular thing to do in Christianity, nor anywhere else.I saw this about mirrors at the POETIC OUTLAWS Substack the day before yesterday:
Break The MirrorBy: Nanao SakakiIn the morningAfter taking cold shower—-what a mistake—-I look at the mirror.There, a funny guy,Grey hair, white beard, wrinkled skin,—-what a pity—-Poor, dirty, old man,He is not me, absolutely not.Land and lifeFishing in the oceanSleeping in the desert with starsBuilding a shelter in the mountainsFarming the ancient waySinging with coyotesSinging against nuclear war—I’ll never be tired of life.Now I’m seventeen years old,Very charming young man.I sit quietly in lotus position,Meditating, meditating for nothing.Suddenly a voice comes to me:“To stay young,To save the world,Break the mirror.”Sloan BashinskyWrites Sloan’s NewsletterJun 30And all along since early 1987, when angels known in the Bible grabbed me and stood me before endless mirrors, looking a me, looking at me, looking at me, ugh, looking at me, ugh - was a message that the mirror was, is, humanity's cure, if it will use it :-).monsters and menWrites monsters’s SubstackJun 30That is an interesting perspective I didn’t think about, but now that you mentioned it, it makes all the sense in the world 😃 I saw the poem as an invitation to liberate ourselves from what we think we know about us and live beyond the limitations/weaknesses that the mirror reveals. On the other hand the mirror can reveal our fouls as you well pointed out.Sloan BashinskyWrites Sloan’s NewsletterJun 30The mirror reveals the monsters in men and in women, as well as any good qualities they do not see in themselves.Sue CauhapeWrites Ring Around the BasinJun 30I see it as a chance to have a conversation with yourself: hello beautiful, what marvelous mischief is in store for you today? what gifts shall you bring to the party to make people laugh and love themselves. Only when they love themselves can they love others.Sloan BashinskyWrites Sloan’s NewsletterJun 30That, too. And yet, until they, and we, see the monster sides of ourselves, and deal with that, do we even know ourselves?monsters and menWrites monsters’s SubstackJun 30Sometimes not being aware where our limits are, can make us push further beyond what we would normally dare to try. “Looking in the mirror” and reminding ourselves about what we can and what we can not do might be rather a set back in our endeavor. So from this perspective maybe forgetting about the mirror would help. On the other hand just as you said, it reveals some of the wicked corners of our personality. So in your opinion, should we break the mirror or not? 😃Sloan BashinskyWrites Sloan’s NewsletterJun 30I think if we break the mirror, we are the loser, we weenie out.
Me to JeanieI'm going to try to go back to sleep.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment