Revolt?

Is that what it’s going to take? A revolution, a personal revolt? I’m not talking about fighting against government or society. It’s something that is deeply embedded in our society, though. It’s shaping our society. This revolt is against the mindless acceptance of the aggresive manipulation of social media platforms.

This is not true for everyone but we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t realize that it’s true for the majority of us… Using social media can be addictive. It can destroy our self image. It magnifies loneliness even though we may have hundreds of “friends”. As a musician I find that I contantly fight a battle against wasting time on those platforms when I could be creating and building the business side of my endeavors.

So, I’m going to be working over the next couple of months to steer supporters, followers and listeners over to my website. I’ll still take advantage of the advertising aspect of Facebook and Instagram to get the word out. But I want to do all I can to keep people from spending more time on a social media site than the time it takes to read a note and click on over and out of those places. I don’t want them to be encouraged to linger.

Nostalgia?

I’m at that age. The age where people start to look back and remember how wonderful the “old days” were. The town was better. The food was better. Families were better. Life without smartphones was better. Everything was better. For a long time I had a tendency to agree and to enjoy bashing the present.

But the passage of time causes forgetfulness. Some days were good. Some were bad. For a lot of us many of our days were horrible and few were good. I’m glad that I remember mine as having been mostly good. However, I think that we have this automatic mind-mechanism that dims the negative expereiences. (There’s a name for that in psychology but I want to sound a little more poetic and less techincal.)

Maybe my friends that praise the past and bemoan the present really did have a care-free childhood. Maybe their lives really have been charmed. I doubt it. But some of them are very vocal about the “good ole days”. It could just be talking-point syndrome.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

Ecclesiastes 7:10 NIV

That’s a rather obscure verse in the bible. I have to learn to adjust my mindset so that I’m not longing for the past. Instead of doing that, I should be looking forward, preparing for the future. Do I want to make the future like the past or do I want to see all things made new? Do I want to join in on the new thing that God started and that he’s still rolling out? Where will my focus be?

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Galatians 5:17 NIV

And...

There’s nothing extraordinarily special about this. But I hope that you can relate to some of what I’m saying and that we will sense that we’re walking down life’s twists and turns together, not alone.

I’m aiming to post mental musings, music and some videos that will challenge your ideas about faith, life and the people around you. I don’t have it all figured out… faith, life and the people around me. Maybe we can help each other learn more about everything.