I've stayed off Facebook the last couple of days. Sometimes the negative vibes seem to be in overdrive. The world is a pretty volatile place right now and I'm finding Facebook to be a good barometer at where people's heads are at on any particular day. I'm also finding that many of them have an insatiable need to make sure EVERYONE really understands how pissed off they are or how unfair the world is...things I either don't personally care about or already know. So it seemed as good a time as any to take a break...sort of.
Tonight I was back on there briefly. OK, so I'm a little bit addicted to the whole thing. Social media is part of my professional world, for goodness sake. But one comment caught my eye. During an online "conversation" some of us "friends" expressed our utter amazement that finally - on about the sixth day of such announcements - the school districts were informing us the night before that there would be a delay. A friend noted that this was the first time this has happened in her school district and that perhaps it was a sign that "hell was freezing over."
That got me thinking about that tried and true expression. "When hell freezes over..." The world is pretty hellish right now. And it is freezing cold and snowing and icing and slushing all over the East Coast. Forget the Mayan calendar. Ignore Nostradomus. Could the crappy weather we've been experiencing for what seems like eternity be THE "sign"? Are we truly living hell on earth, and are the snow, ice, slush, cold, wind, rain, etc. just signs of an impending apocalypse?
But then I peruse Facebook and see the photos of an ice sculpture a teacher/artist/writer friend has created in his front yard. There's a bunch of kids with smiling faces standing around it, sitting on top of it. I find the profile pic of someone who has built a giant snow woman, fashioned in a real bikini, with a sign, "Is it summer yet?" I watched as my own kids pitched in to help shovel out the slush today, while the dog ran ragged across - and through - the crunchy surface.
And I think to myself, "Is THIS hell on earth?" And I decide, no, hell hath no fury but this world, while experiencing some difficult times, certainly still has its bright spots. Maybe we're feeling a little bit like we're on a prolonged stop in purgatory right now and have overstayed our welcome. Maybe we have to let our hearts melt away the negativity and the anger and the hate so we can move on. Besides, Dante's circles would be a bitch to maneuver without rock salt, and you can't find that ANYWHERE.
