Sticks and Stones

I’ve had that thought - but ten times worse.

Mull of the day. One that I remembered anyway.

I heard an interview today with someone called Gracie Abrams (I think that’s was her name, embarrassingly I have no clue who she is but apparently she’s a big deal!) and she was responding to a question about how did she deal with trolls in the internet.  She was fairly waffly about feeling sorry for them as they probably don’t have support like she does but she also said that any negative comments they throw at her, she has already had these thoughts and probably much, much worse.

I found it interesting.  That this comes from someone, who by her own admission is super successful, a nepo baby - she’s dating one of the world’s most popular actors - and I just checked, she’s very beautiful. Even she doubts herself, hard. We are our own worst critics.

We women don’t need someone telling us that we are ugly or fat or too privileged or a bad person.  That we can’t sing or we look bad on a horse.  That we are can’t cook or we shouldn’t eat butter or that I belong in jail (that one got me yesterday - really?  Why?!)

We will have already had terrible thoughts that tear ourselves down.  You pointing them out is just a bit more salt in the wound.

Social media is such a bizarre concept.  We post a teeny, tiny fragment of our lives.  Sometimes raw.  Sometimes over-the-top curated.  But it’s an isolated moment of time.  It might pour one’s very essence into a nutshell but most likely it’s a bit exaggerated and most likely it’s not an accurate description of your character.  A character that will be ever changing and evolving.

And why is it so much easier to listen to these horrid comments than the nice ones?  Why do we take the nasty ones and fester over them?  Why do we hold the nice ones closely to our chest for a moment before sadly disbelieving or discarding them?

You can’t know someone from these squares.  Not truly.  You most definitely cannot form a reliable opinion of someone and write a responsible character summary from one reel.  Why try?  But people do, apparently the world is rife with them.

Is it jealousy?  Is that where this need to hurt and jab like picador comes from?  Is it boredom?  Is it simply malicious?

I don’t know.  I just hope that things might change.  That these faceless, gutless  keyboard bullies might find something else to do. Like read a book.  Or go for a walk. Or at a push, maybe they could try putting something kind out into the ether instead?

I think the fresh air and a good book might be the better path. Less Fortnite and doom scrolling.

Then perhaps they might tread slightly lighter over other people’s fragile lives on their roughshod feet…