I have had so many people post some rather interesting information on Facebook. It seems a number of people I know are going through emotional, relationship or other issues in their lives. One hour they are happy with life, the next they are down. The fact that I see quite a number of posts like that in any given day by a number of people, I can only imagine what other people get from their friends who post.

Sometimes I want to reach out and give someone a hug. Other times I want to smack them upside their heads. I started taking a closer look as to the people who were on the swing trip and who wasn’t. Granted, my results aren’t scientific and I have a small number of friends on Facebook relative to others, but the results I found gave me an odd sense of comfort.

The Facebook friends of mine who posted the most about their personal issues were religious. Be it establishment, New Age or quasi spiritual, people who wore their religion on their sleeves were the ones most likely to talk about their issues freely and openly. It can get a bit confusing for me because when I listen to my mother, no religious slouch her, when she gets down in the dumps she may mope around for an hour or a day but ultimately she will ‘put her troubles in the hands of the Lord.’ Now, she doesn’t forget it, because she also believes that the Lord will do for those who do. In other words, while you shouldn’t dwell on your problems you can’t just expect it to be fixed magically. You have to put in some effort, along with the Lord’s help, to solve your own problems.

Using my mother as an example doesn’t mean I’m saying her way is right for all people, but my mother doesn’t post her every little thought on Facebook. When I see a person talk about how lonely they are because of relationship issues, but I know in real life they aren’t as open as they make themselves out to be I have a problem. When I see the same people talk about being true to themselves, I know it’s just talk and they aren’t going to take action to be honest with themselves about their issues. You can drink all the herbal tea, smell all of the incense and beat all the drums you want; if you are faking the funk and you don’t realize how the world really is, you will always be disappointed.

I’m not going to name name’s but in all the people I’ve read posts from who are in this up and down cycle of issues, I can see where a specific factor screws up their whole game plan. To use a crude analogy, they all have a similar attitude of a heroin addict who becomes a militant anti-drug proponent but will smoke pot ‘every once in a while.’ It kind of messes up the image they are forcing others to see. Sure, they may have huge justifications for smoking pot a little bit, but being so over the top with others and projecting a better than everyone else attitude, the pot smoking hinders others from listening to their words.

When regular people like myself are shouted down by self-righteous people, our first instinct is to find a flaw because experience shows us if you hate something so much, especially something that doesn’t directly affect you, there has to be a skeleton in the closet. Just look at the recent political sex scandals of Filner, Weiner and Spitzer. All have done a lot of public good to some degree and in some cases they have been fighters against the same practices they have been caught doing. They may want to move forward and try to convince us their scandalous ways are in the past, but the evidence doesn’t support it. They look like hypocrites when they talk about moving past the scandal when the scandal has given them recognition. This is especially true with Bob Filner in San Diego. Unless you lived in San Diegan for a good number of years, Filner wasn’t a name know outside the county and definitely not out of the state. He did some good things but the guy was and is a jerk in his attitude. I know this because I have seen him in interviews for many years and met him many years ago. At the time I didn’t know how much of a sleazy guy he was but he gave off that vibe. He and other scandal riddled politicians can’t talk about moving on and hoping to serve the people when they are tarred with scandal.

Admittedly, politicians that have scandals are in the extreme, but common people I get posts from who try to work out their issues on social media face the same contradictions. They talk about being better than everyone else in one instance, ask for help in another, and then condemn those who don’t ‘get them’ in another post. The character Pogo famously said ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’ The folks who want to work out their issues in social media don’t realize the world isn’t the ‘problem,’ they are the ‘problem.’ Now, in knowing that, the real question is what is a problem? If you are really comfortable in your skin, what does it matter what the world thinks? Social posting of issues is a way of trying to validate yourself with others, but at the same time there can be an arrogance that gets in the way of listening to other points of view or even admitting that you may have been wrong in something.

Like my mom says, sometimes you have to let go and let God, but in doing so doesn’t mean you don’t work on yourself.