You Won’t BELIEVE the Scandalous Thing This Man Does With NEEDLES!!!

It all started with a little pissy blurb about Madonna. “You Won’t Believe the Scandalous Thing Madonna Did Now!!!” Such urgency with all those exclamations…..

I don’t get a lot of internet time. I’m working up, knitting up my bears. I spend most of my day listening to the radio. Talk radio. So, I pop online real quick just to get some info on the world at large, that big ol’ sphere of fear that’s been casually working itself into a big boom of bad attitude. I don’t mean the globe, I mean the internet itself.

So, as I peek around the really BIG topics of the day (the missing airplane, the issue of Ukraine, Beiber’s move to Atlanta), I saw this little bit about Madonna over off to the side. “You Won’t BELIEVE it!!!!”

I’m a fan of the lady. Sometimes the music, but more so, of the impression she’s made, and let’s not forget the longevity. But this blog post is not about Madonna. She’s just the anecdote. This blog is about the headline I was compelled to click on. So, I did. Stupidly, awkwardly, I did. And there was a selfie of Madonna fully dressed on the bathroom floor with the caption, “Should I shower or take a bath?” I can’t seem to find the scandal in it, so I was foolish enough to keep peeking down at the comments people left.

She’s an old whore.

Basically that’s it in a nutshell. That’s all the comments thrown into one simple phrase, not quite a haiku, but solid enough.

She’s an old whore.

Now, there were more links on the side also with similar phrases. “Madonna Hates Her Own Music!” “See Madonna’s Selfie Fail!!!!”

…..of course, for research purposes mind you, I clicked, read comments and saw precisely and correctly what this website was doing. “Click Throughs” equal cash for advertisers. You toss up a rather scathing headline about someone, goof through an awful opinionated collapse into pity, then allow people to comment. And people get paid. There’s a good industry of people who promote and support artists out there (or is it in here?) on the internet. But, sadly, there is an even bigger industry built on trash talking. Its a sad industry. But, its quite successful. It damages, destroys, and ruins people.

Funny, the cause du jour, the big fight on all people’s minds, is bullying…..yet, they can’t wait to go online and comment with absolute hatred for someone with whom they don’t like for any reason other than a photo. Someone made a comment about my book. “I hate the idea of this book….even the cover annoys me.” Although they had never read it….. And I saw another comment. “HE needs to eat a sandwich…..no, actually a whole cow.”

So be mindful. Before you decide to comment on a website on someone’s life, or work, or hard times, or good times…..be mindful of what it is and why it is you feel the need to do harm, rather than good. Sit back and really ask, what the hell am I doing trash talking this person? WHY??? WHY am I spending my time not just giving hate, but experiencing hate, LOVING the hate, ENJOYING the hate……?

Someone is making a bundle off of your hate. And you get nothing in return but a chance to say something……So make sure what you say has something of importance and benefit. The best lesson in life I’ve ever learned? You’ll get back precisely PRECISELY what you put in…..You put into the world all that angry, bullying crap and that will be ALL that you get back in return.

Don’t write something you might regret. Don’t write something that you would not want to read about yourself. Whatever happened to “If you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all?” Is that just an old fashioned thing? A Southern thing? A polite thing? What is the big damned deal about being kind? Why is KINDNESS sometimes the LAST resort in confrontation and opinion. Why is the first always disdain?

So, you understand the reason for the title of this blog then, don’t you? Someone is expecting me to prick myself like a self appointed acupuncturist, or maybe shove needles up my bum, or maybe use needles in some phallic way. But, no…..the truth is, the scandalous thing this man does with KNITTING needles is knit teddy bears. That’s about as filthy as it gets.

My first official selfie…..I ain’t touchin’ NUTHIN’ #mindful.