Checkmate

To Friend or Unfriend THAT is the question.   If Shakespeare was alive today he would have The Taming of the Social Network Shrew available on kindle.  The soil of our internet community is so fertile for dark comedy.  And you have to laugh at it.  You do.  If not Life becomes a trilogy of epic tragedy.

We have the power to add or delete people with so much ease that at times we do so accidentally, only to spend the better part of a day trying to figure out WHO we kicked off the Island.  We can prohibit comments, limit access to our wall (poignant metaphor), and all together block someone from our go-daddy domain of quips, pics and potshots.

Now you see me.   Now you don’t.   It can be a very mean game of hide and seek.   Or poke and peek.  For some I suspect, it s a matter of  perceived control.  When we feel so out of control for so many things in our life … the ability to make someone disappear can appear quite powerful.   While others no doubt move their pawn to block a perceived opponent’s rook because they need to protect themselves in some way shape or forum.  And I do not claim that the latter is any better than the former motivation.  No judgement.  No just cause.  Simply observation, as clueless as that may be at times.

I like to believe that my practice of loving kindness allows me to cast a wide net of acceptance.  And so I have people in my close circle of friends-I’ve-never-met, that have vastly different beliefs, values and lifestyles.  For the most part we all get-along — which means they are kind enough to stab me in the back only when I am not looking and I keep my head in the sand much of the time so its a win-win for everyone.  And still, there are those circumstances albeit few and far between when I feel the need to protect my heart, or shelter my mind from the energy vampires, drama llamas or well meaning mammas that for no fault of their own I find I can no longer stand in their MySpace.

Whether we feel the block, tackle or get called out of the game for unnecessary roughness, all we can do is try and let go especially if someone is pushing us over the gigabit balcony.  The byte of a foe can throttle our pace, put us in our place or give us the space we need to work on our own demons.  And in truth we can always only work on our Self.  Because we can never hope to tame the shrew.