Killing Them With Kindness

Thanks social media for dividing us more than I'd have thought possible. There’s always been an asshole's playbook---layer on the stress, get folks to judge and dislike each other based on color, religion, nationality, even sports team fandom---and maybe no one will notice how rigged all of this has been. Social media has been all of that on steroids.

So I’ve retreated outside and picked up a basketball for the first time in years, every Sunday morning, and I am in love with the game again. That and music are keeping me going. As always, the players, diverse, unpaid, of varying skills, are pure wonderful. The 59 year-old and 48 year-old African Americans, the 55 year-old Italian, the 39 year-old Hispanic, the 20-something Serbians, the 29 year-old Irishman, and 70 year-old me. We pass, we shoot, we bang and then we do it all over again next Sunday. Only two months in on my comeback, I kind of love every one of them, that kind of love that's probably little "l" love but means so much.

They laughed today when I tried to settle a minor dispute by calling for a vote, reminding them all that we still had a democracy, at least for the coming week. The retort “that shit's gone," brought even more laughter and it wasn't until I got home that I felt like crying. They want to exchange numbers and emails and social media handles and we'll have to see about that. Don't want to chance ruining a good thing by learning what one thinks about the Middle East or the Ukraine or DEI or immigration or LGBTQ rights, or do I?

Social media was supposed to be a basketball court you could walk on and play, share some passions, give a hug as good as you get. But it’s not and until it is, all I can think about is getting outside, going to concerts and street fairs, being more kind than I feel up to. Fingers…..and arms……crossed.