’ve noticed that it seems
fashionable to shoot first and ask
questions later, literally and
figuratively. This isn’t a new phenomenon, of course, particularly online. It’s easy to drop off a little nugget of hate in
someone’s comments or DMs whenever an
ugly mood strikes. Just passing by, thought
I’d leave a digital flaming pile of crap in
your path. You’re welcome.
Admittedly, it’s momentarily
cathartic and may even
spark others to chime
in with their own
bitter flavor of
ugliness. The
rush of
putting it out there feels good.
Until it doesn’t.
I don’t use much social media, so my medium of choice is email. I have a rule that when I’m angry about something, and I need to compose a grievance email about it, I permit myself to write whatever I want, but I am not allowed to send it for 24 hours. I can let it fly if I’m still that fired up in a day. If not, I take a deep breath, delete the evidence of my furor, and get away from the screen.
It works well unless I break the rule, which I did recently. Actually, I did it twice.
As it usually happens, The Universe is here to keep trying to teach me a lesson repeatedly until I learn it.
I broke the rule a few weeks ago. It was one of those days. I’d like to blame it on the fact that I was tired and running late all day, rushing from trying to do too many things, but it was just another busy summer afternoon. I felt my plans collapsing around me, and to top it off, a bunch of groceries was missing from my Instacart order. Of course, it was the ingredients I wanted to cook for dinner, and it felt like the last straw.
I