Hide Your Face

In my last blog entry, I shared that I need to check my motivation for writing.

And, probably, it's about more than writing.

Can't really see it...just yet.

A dear friend and I fleshed this out a bit more, and I think I am getting closer to understanding the destination that I can almost...almost....see in the distance.

But before I search the horizon for more signs, I am sure I need to talk about Facebook. 

Makes sense, right?  We have to talk about Facebook because it is such a part of our today...every day;

it might be in the way of seeing what is on the horizon.

Excuse me...

I don’t want to bash Facebook.  Maybe there were good intentions behind it.  I totally seriously doubt that...I am betting the intention was cashola...cha-ching, but…still…

I don’t want to bash Facebook, but I do want to talk about what we have done with it...

and what you know about Facebook:

it is EE-VIL.

OK.

You agree.  Fine.  I know you do.  We can all plainly see that Facebook is screwing up the world one person at a time, but not a one of us wants to acknowledge that we too are contributing to this crisis.

Glad we got that off my chest….

Oh.  Wait.  It isn’t off yet, and I detect maybe just a hint of disagreement on your part.

That’s reasonable; I mean, you might be among the 1% who are not crippled - to some degree - by your use of Facebook.

The problem, right off the bat, is the word “Face” in the title.  

We produced a book around our face…not our heart - Heartbook; not our soul - Soulbook; not even our rearend (immaterial, possibly, but - for most of us - we consider our rearend to be everything that is wrong with us, so maybe that would have been more genuine…to call it Buttbook, and then we wouldn't be on there so often...).

But, alas, not a butt…we were asked to craft a Face.

We're looking for the one in the middle, 

but he may have altered his appearance...

Over and over, the expression “Save Face” comes to mind, which – of course – speaks to maintaining our honor and our prestige.

Honor and prestige…neither one has much to do with humility.

And, humility is pretty darn important to our authentic happiness –

note the word authentic...

AUTHENTIC!

We are talking about real, enduring happiness…not the kind you buy at the mall...not the kind you post about and want people to "Like."  

We are talking about deep happy…permanent happy…happy you can build on...die with.

Anonymity promises authentic happiness.  

Anonymity, as in...no one thinks about YOU.

And, if we can do good deeds and not do them to get people thinking about US,

then we are NOT doing good deeds for... 

ourselves.  

We are actually doing good deeds for...

the sake of the GOOD. 

Doing IT for the sake of the GOOD.

That's Real Good.

We have corrected our motivation.  

  

We have removed our face.

We get no public credit, but we are getting deep happy….

We are giving ourselves deep happy.  

Instead of "likes," we get deep happy,

and deep happy lasts.

"Likes" make us happy...sure,
but "Likes" are a lot like a drug - you need to go get more when it wears off.

  

Didn't know you could be happy without posting about it?

I am so sorry this sounds so curmudgeony.  This sounds like something the Burgermeister would tell ya, 

No More Facebook!

Maybe that should be my new profile pic.

Let's just go ahead and get all the quotes out of the way...

1. The words of Oscar Wilde, “I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.”
2. And, a quote from The Lego Movie, 

“The only thing you need to feel special is to believe you can be,”

(Note:  no mention of Facebook in the quotes.)

We must stop wasting time doing all this stuff,

posting pictures of it,

and waiting for comments about it….

Just DO the stuff.

And then do MORE stuff...

GOOD stuff...

not phony, posing, pretentious, crafted FACEBOOKY stuff.

Do AUTHENTIC STUFF for the sake of the GOOD...

not for the sake of the face.

Humility requires a lot of anonymity, and – well…you can see my point, right?  I mean, if we are always shoving our face in front of another’s face, then there isn't much anonymity. 

In any case...or face…

I am sorry I came down so hard on Facebook.  I know very few people are ready to talk like this on this subject.  I just had to get this out in the open - full disclosure...Facebook really bothers me.  It really really really really stinkin bothers me.  It bothers me.  I hope it bothers you for the same reason it bothers me.

I want authenticity.

I am trying to find my destination;

and so, I am trying to correct my motivation.

It’s a process.

You are privy to the process.

Sorry it is messy.

I think I mostly just wrote this for me...again.