I received the most incredible one star review of my novel
the other day. It dropped onto my virtual doorstep early in the morning and lay
there like a steamy bag of poo until I finally gathered the courage to examine
it more closely.
Whew!
Such a reek of animosity, such a stream of vitriol. So unnecessary.
And it
occurred to me . . . at this moment,
somebody, somewhere, is doing CPR on a stranger, and they are pushing every
ounce of their will power, their entire essence, into making that chest gasp and
heave on its own.
There
is a worthy endeavor.
Someone
is building a homeless shelter, someone is holding a child’s hand, someone
is rescuing a raccoon from a foothold trap; and these are all good things.
But.
It also occurred to me that the collective
weight of negativity on our planet may well be our undoing, and if that is the
case, then we’ll deserve whatever we have coming to us.
Rise
above, people, rise above.
It’s
not a good thing to hate, even in the virtual world, okay? That sort of thing
eats away not only at your own soul, but the souls of everyone you touch.
If you
are actually sitting at your computer somewhere spewing endless streams of
hatred, you’ve got to stop. Because we’re all connected, right? Your hand in
mine, like it or not, is the only way we’ll get through this life intact, and
right now you’re weighing the rest of us down. Pick up your chin, look around
you, and understand . . . it’s coming down to brass tacks, isn’t it? We live in
a world where the unborn die by the thousands, the refugees cry at the gates,
and gun sales are through the roof.
Some would say the sky is falling
down around us.
Please,
please understand. The world needs you. And it is not okay to waste your time
huddled over your laptop spewing nastiness at all and sundry. You’ve got to
jump into the fray, you’ve got to make your life count for something. What you
think of an anonymous writer’s novel – or of Caitlyn Jenner’s boobs, or the
Starbuck’s coffee cup - is moot, and these are unpardonably silly topics to
have frittered your time away on.
Rescue yourself.
