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I am no twitter fan. Tried to twit ages ago and couldn’t see the point. Have I thoughts worth sharing, words worth reading, insights worth seeing?  Probably.  But are they any more or less than others … I am not sure.

Then a chap called Donald came along and made twitter an artform.  And like all art it sings to some and burns to others.  In almost equal measure by what I see.  I find that amazing.  That as many millions idolise as demonise.  I am guessing that not many of us know Donald.  Not “know” as in really know the human being who poops like me, burps like me, snores like me, is as indecisive as me, is as good and bad at important relationships as me.  None of us reading the tweets of a twitter trender know any of that.

I have seen many words written here in WordPress that are idolised and demonised.  Converts v deconverts mainly.  Those with a faith v those with a faith in something else.  All defending the faith they happen to think is the faith to follow (at that point in their lives).  So many of my words have been my journey of faith of one thing and then another.  Yet who here knows the real me?  The one who poops and burps and snores and is indecisive and who is good and bad at relationships.

I like to think that if I were President as Donald still is I wouldn’t use twits to twitter.  Would not think my string of characters any more insightful just because I had a jobspec many envy and few obtain.  I have a jobspec.  Some envy it, others dismiss it, and many are completely (and blissfully) unaware of it.  We all have titles and labels.  We all pursue stuff important to us.  We all try to earn to be comfortable.  And we all change.  Even Donald.

I am not idolised.  I am not demonised.  I am not worth the effort I suspect.

But I – like Donald – am loved by a few.  Those who know the real me.  Who see and hear the poops and burps and snores and indecision and my good-bad relationship-ing.  I suspect that if I knew Donald like those who know Donald in that way I would neither demonise not idolise Donald.  I suspect Donald wouldn’t me either.  The same is true of Joe I suspect.

Idolising and demonising is not really helpful to knowing much about anyone.

We have Covid.  We have a torpedoed economy.  We have death and sickness.  We have dissent and argument.  We have toxic and poisonous times right now.  And we so easily think ourselves the first to experience this perfect unwanted storm.  And then “end times” become the easy theological reason.  All foretold.  All prophesied.  All to be fulfilled.

I look back and see so many times as bad or worse than these times.

I read the bible and see someone born in to the most perfect of man-made storms.  One who walked with perfect ease in all the places so many of us then and now would never tread.  Who walked at peace with everything in and around.  With time for all who idolised and demonised as well as those who sought to know.  Who made time work for each moment and all it brought rather than let it work against everything I want to do and do right now.

If we are really a god-fearing country as our pomp and ceremony and religious holidays and cultural and political structures would have us believe … then perhaps we should demonise or idolise less and seek to know more.  Donald or Joe is not the answer.  No president can ever be the answer.  They come and go too fast.  Have to spend so much getting there.  Trample on too may – kiss the ass of too many.  Live a horse-trading back-scratching life.  If we put our hopes in them being the answer to anything very much we will always be disappointed.

But making time work for me rather than against?  Being at peace with all this moment brings me?  Having time to be rather than no time at all?  That needs no twitter, no President of this persuasion or that.  That doesn’t mean we have to be Covid free either.  Being at peace in this moment and the next is not about “stuff.  It is about me and no one else.

Does anyone else find that truly amazing?

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