I am the featured poet on Strong Verse

Hiya...I am happy to relay that a poem I sold to Orson Scott Card's online poetry Journal Strong Verse is up on their website. This is one of my shorter poems, tittled, "This is Why I Hurt You." I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. (http://www.strongverse.org/) They change the featured author after several days, so just search for my name under "living poets" to find it.

Coming soon....blog entries on Intimate Partner Violence, Growing U.S. Ignorance. I've been super-busy with work.

And Thus, The Wheel Turns Again

Fall always speak to me of the new year--I can't quite get myself to believe the January date. Silly Romans and their non-intuitive calendar.

Many cultures past and present celebrate a time during autumn as the new year. This has always felt more "right."

This week is the autumnal equinox, or Mabon, or first day of Fall. Whatever you call it, it is one of the two times per year when day and night are equal length. In the neo-Pagan tradition, it is the second of the harvest festivals.

The Fall is compelling. It is a time of bounty and many new beginnings; it is also a time of slow deaths.

What will you begin? What will you offer to the bonfire of change? What is presently in your life--physically or metaphorically--that no longer serves your best interests? What do you need to shed in order to nurture your highest good?

These are the questions I ask myself this time every year. It is a scary time in many ways.

Abandonment

The writers I admire most seem to be able to set aside their fear of judgement. Their writing is passionate and scary and bizarre and unsafe. They write as though they have abandoned the rest of the world--that in those hours and days of creation they are utterly one with all that challenges them as people.

To create like this is to ride a searing edge of all that is considered sane and rational. It is throwing yourself off a cliff; into icy, churning waters when you can't swim. It is to enter the purportedly haunted house armed with only a candle and two matches.

I ache to write at this level. I'm not sure how to cast aside all the fear that holds me back. I wear my excuses like armor.

Social Media Does Not Grant You Unlimited Access to Someone's Life

Recently, a friend confided to me that her colleagues at work were being too obtrusive into her personal life. She didn't want to hurt anyones' feeling by unfriending them on Facebook.

Yes--Facebook was a major culprit, although she was also receiving texts at all hours of the day. I asked her if she had made use of the Facebook "lists" feature. This feature allows you to categorize all of your FB connections into categories ("lists") so that you could use some granularity in terms of what you want to share on FB. For example, anyone could create the following lists:

• Work
• BFFs
• Family
• Former Classmates

My friend had done this, and it helped--but it was still not giving her the control she wanted. And it didn't solve the texting issue.

All of this got me thinking about the role of social media in our lives.

Many people are wary of FB and other forms of social media. My husband is one--and it seems to be the norm among the other programmer/application developer/computer-related-professional types he knows.

Because I am a writer, I made the decision to be "out there" with my social media presence. However, I have had to temper this with the fact that I also have job that does not not pay me to snark and write science fiction. I *generally* have made it a policy not to "friend" my work colleagues.

I also do not take it personally if someone "unfriends" me, and neither should anyone. Facebook is not an accurate, mirror reflection of your relationships with people, and it should not be taken as such. Some of the people I have the most contact with on FB are not my best friends in real life.

I also am quite sure that many FB connections have hidden me from their feeds. Again, I do not take this personally. Maybe my high school friends do not want to receive the scifi content I like to post. Or maybe they don't care to know about the trials and tribulations of being a beginning writer. Maybe my politics are too liberal...etc.

If they want to hide me, that is their right. I hide some content also.

Social media has been revolutionary in its ability to connect with people. BUT this does not mean that people necessarily want to hear from you constantly...text wisely. Would you want to be tapped on the shoulder at any time of day or night?

So please Facebook, text, and Twitter responsibly. Technology does not give you right to completely ignore thousands of years of "rules" regarding human interaction.

Those Who Know You

Have you ever reflected upon how many people truly know you? Or perhaps the opposite--how many people should truly know you, but don't. Like family, for example. Or roommates.

For those people who do not truly know you--why is that? It it because of you, or them--or because you tell yourself you're doing it for them, which quite possibly means you're really doing it for your own reasons?

Perhaps you're gay. Or a closet conservative. Or a closet liberal. Or a member of a non-traditional religious organization. Or film porn for a living. Whatever.

Maybe you think these people just don't really care to know the "authentic" you. Or maybe you're scared to admit who you are. For any number of reasons.

Just something I was reflecting on...thoughts and comments welcomed.