...and then I responded...

…and then I responded…

A recap of a couple of early Facebook posts and some more thoughts as the caffiene sinks in.

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A friend called New Years Eve and announced "It has started!" I am cutting my Facebook friend list down and cutting out all of the unknowns. Gone! Disappearo!"

I did the same and checked his list to see if I was there.

Whew, I had made it. Just like the first time I saw my name in print in the phone book:

I knew I was somebody because I was there. (Borrowed from "The Jerk")

People write almost every day to "Be my Friend"

I used to try and figure out who they were and what was our connection and then a friend said "Don't bother...just accept and save time"

I have nothing to hide so I did and I got Dopey's and Sneezy's and Doc's and had no idea who they were.

We all have them.

I like to respond to people when they write. I really don't like the "Like" button because even though it is the impersonal digital world of Facebook, it can still be warm and personal since we can't sit in a coffee house anymore till 2 AM and solve the world's problems. Like Bill said the other day: 9 PM is the new 12 AM,

Earlier in the year, I was losing people who I didn't know because they had cleaned me out. It was my turn.

But I do feel bad that so many wrote to say..."Am I still here?" "Did I make it?"

I apologize to those people. Sneezy, Dopey & Doc...Don’t even know I am gone.

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…but in my weird way what I had said and what I was apologizing for was…

As I did when I had my event a few years ago and cleaned house on Facebook of all the people that I have no recollection of, I have eliminated dozens of people that do little more than throw rocks and glass shards into my path of life.
Goodbye:
Peter
Andrew
John
Philip
Bartholomew
Thomas
Matthew
James
Thaddaeus or Taddy as you are known
Simon
Jude (Hey...)
Mathias
Sleepy,
Grumpy,
Dopey,
Happy,
Bashful,
Doc,
Sneezy...
Francesca
Sudie
Noe (Yes! Finally Have a good year. All I got from her was negative negative and I don’t know why…)
Mallie
Minh
Corrin.
Evelynn (I never understood the second "n". It is like Stuartt)
Chasidy
Mercedez
Mee
Clementina
Mariano.
Siu
Izola
Sharyl
Yer (Sorry...Yer not!)
Bianca
Jacqueline (Your name was just 2 hard to spell!)
Arla
Wilhelmina  (you have a Kaiser complex!)

I am not sure where my head was at. The lists were…ficticious…

Right, I made them up.

The first dozen were the Apostles. I didn’t want to think deep like I was giving up God or anything. It was just a quick list.. I must not hang with many Catholics.

The next batch were Snow White’s gang of mining Buddies. I thought at least I would get a something response.

The final collection was a Google list they give you if you Google-ask for a list of random names.

And in a way, many of the people on our list’s are just random names. I am still surprised when I find someone on Facebook and they are all locked down: like they have secrets they don’t want to get out. They don’t want to share the ball if they don’t have too.

They never played with the new kid down the block, just because they were the new kid.

They whispered in class and rarely wrote notes. Notes could be captured and then every one would know.

They whispered into the ear of neighbors so none could hear.

So Facebook breaks down to those who scribble graffiti on a wall like me for all to see.

Those that have lists that categorize people and sweat over dinner lists about mixing the wrong groups.

The Note Writers that will only be seen by friends and friends of friends.

And those that whisper. And we all know what happens to a whisper and a story as it makes it’s way round the room: it grows..it shrinks…it changes. A mouse becomes a dragon, an accent becomes and alien.

I am giving myself thought this year. Maybe too much thought. Either way, with the good lessons in hand from 2014 and the bad lessons stuck in memories, I ready myself to take on what comes.

But I will start with where is my Facebook head!