Day 9

Welcome to the ninth day of my self-imposed Facebook hiatus. I miss it a little, but it's not horrible. Not like the dreaded caffeine withdrawal headache that darkens your door when you give up coffee. I feel a bit of a kinship with those more pious than me as this is the Lenten season. Where people give up things they love as an act of sacrifice hoping they'll learn something from the conscious denial of pleasure. I had a friend who regularly gave up sourkraut for Lent. But she didn't love sourkraut. So she didn't suffer. Kind of missing the whole point but she was dead serious about it. Maybe Methodist Lent is different that way. I must say I don't love Facebook so this isn't an enormous sacrifice on my part, either. I think I have regained something over an hour each day but I can't say I use it wisely or in any constructive manner. I do enjoy how easy it is to stay in contact with many people, and the pages I have liked provide links to news stories that interest me. I expect I'll stay away for another week but probably not in excess of a month. My hope is that it will be fun again after some time away. Funny how one incident of a friend meddling where they ought not can alter your outlook. But I have always felt that relationships of any kind are like that. You can go on for years and years sometimes and things remain pleasant. And then there's that one day when something happens that makes you question your ties to another person. Maybe it's a dealbreaker, maybe it's just the first straw that eventually devolves into the last. Nothing lasts forever. So I think it's imperative that we spend the time we do have with those whose company is a positive, enriching and joyous experience. And that applies to Facebook as well as the real world.