And yet I’m not. My new blabbing attitude, for instance, should fit right into social media. But it doesn’t. Facebook, for example, seems to be divided into two opposing camps, neither of which I can relate to. There are the angry insulters and there are those who will only smile. (Yes, I know I’m overly generalizing). The angry ones seem to want to hurt as many people as they can, and the others don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m with the others. I don’t want to hurt anyone either. And yet I can’t stop talking and it’s become obvious that when I do, no matter what I say, if the readership is potentially large enough I will hurt someone in some way.
So, I see why sensitive people don’t say anything, even when they don’t have the fear I’ve had all my life: They’ve spent all that time learning what not to say. Which is anything, if the crowd they’re talking to is big enough. Well, I’m a fairly quick learner. I’ve been learning that attitude myself lately. The trouble is, it’s destroying all my newfound freedom.
Now I see that the larger the crowd is that I talk with, the less freedom I have. In any large group, there will be people who will take offence at something. A small group would be ideal, say four or five sitting around a table in a café somewhere, but for that I would have to find friends who are just like me in their ideas, or who are all happy to talk endlessly about only one thing, which would bore me. So then it would seem that the most freedom would come in a conversation with only one person. That might be a person who is just like me in beliefs, but more likely someone who is willing to accept me for the somewhat strange person I am, and I them, in the intense give and take that is a true two-way street.
Which brings me to my conclusion from this year of experimenting. Since I do not want to stifle myself again, after having done it all my life, and since virtually any relatively free opening-up is likely to annoy someone, the only real alternative is to try to thicken my skin as quickly as possible, to deeply realize that it doesn’t matter how people see me. Well, that sounds easier than it is, especially for a formerly shy person. Because the basis of my shyness, as with anyone’s, is a lack of confidence. And it’s impossible to gain confidence overnight. Especially when I make social blunders far more often than I ever did before (from too much talk but not enough social experience to do it properly). Those blunders reinforce the lack of confidence, instead of helping rid me of it.
It’s a process. And I’m working through it.
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Larry Burfield Very interesting and agree totally. There is so much anger out there expressed too often. I don't comment on politics too often even though I have strong views. I learned when on Council in the tiny village of Munson that it is impossible to please all the people. We called a general meeting once just to try and calm the rumours. You get pretty thick skinned when in a bunch that has got riled up over false information. Crazy enough I went back for a second term, mainly because one of the other councillors thought very much like myself and would try and address any issues as soon as we know of them. It is a process you have to work through for sure. Keep up the good work!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 12:23
Stan Burfield Thanks, Larry. Very interesting seeing it work out in a small-town council. Sort of similar to the open-mic I invented, I guess. Except that yours had much more serious outcomes to your decisions.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 12:27
MaryLee Bragg There's also the problem that typing stuff onto a screen to be posted on social media isn't really "talking" in a sense our ancestors would recognize.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 12:47
Stan Burfield That's true. Shy people on the internet can pretend to be extroverts. That's where some of the anger comes from, I think.
Like · Reply · 2 · 19 December at 12:50
MaryLee Bragg Also the extreme difficulty of conveying nuance in this medium. I've heard that over 90% of communication is non-verbal: body language, facial expression, tone of voice. All that's missing here.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:12
Stan Burfield That's certainly true. I think there's something missing from that equation, though. What the person is TRYING to say is only that 10%. I think most of the 90% that's body language and so on is extraneous material, stuff you have to say just because you're face-to-face. For instance your body has to say that you're not talking down at the other person, that you respect them, that you're also listening to their reactions, etc.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:49 · Edited
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Jf Pickersgill In response to the questions you are pondering, my wife would cite a favourite quote, "Frankly, your opinion of me is none of my business."
I might add a favourite quote of my own, "Social media is a gathering of a large number of people from everywhere on the planet, all just waiting for something to be outraged about."
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 12:57
Stan Burfield ha ha. I like both of them equally. (And I'm not trying to please both of you equally.)
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 12:58
Stan Burfield But your wife's, on second thought, takes the cake. It's one I'm definitely going to memorize. And USE!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 13:00
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Brandi Michielsen Lol, Stan. You have your one-to-one friend who accepts you for who you are. Linda. Having a mate in your life who you can share your deepest intimate secrets with and know that you are safe is blessing beyond 'Top Notch' & treasure in this world where so much anger and people lashing out from their own painful personal issues or just 'misguided missiles' in life, bombing innocent people in the process of figuring out their own 'self-worth' [?] A partner keeps us grounded and balanced, if with the right one. As far as annoying people with babble talk, I'm there with you. Suppressed all my pain as a child, through teens and into my young adult years until I became so broken [violentantly beaten/car accident/head injuries] that the doctors diagnosed me with a very bleak future that I wouldn't accept. I told them I was taking my case to my Great Physician - Dr. Jesus. Yup, I said it and does that ever annoy people who do not want anything to do with 'Religion'. News flash. Jesus is not religion. Check it out. I know [beyond a reasonable doubt] he was my source of healing and in exceeding my Doctors expectations of what I would ever be able to accomplish on my own human strength or capabilities. He gave me liberation from who I was, and set me free. Problem was that I began to unravel from over 30 years of my life being silenced, belittled, bullied and I somewhat had a difficult time to not come back swinging at those who I felt did me dirt in my younger years. People who screwed me over avoided me like the plague as they knew something big had changed me and they didn't want to mess with me, as they knew professionals were involved [Law Enforcement, Therapist, Doctors, etc.] and they knew how to tip-toe around the boundaries of the law. Moved to London to avoid contacts with those I wanted to avoid. Went back to school to obtain Bus Admin Certificate, and continue on with my life. So life has it struggles and with the introduction of the Internet I became terrified of interacting over cyberspace, due to my studies, the trolling, flame throwing destructive 'misguided missiles' out there who didn't care whose life they were inflicting with hurt & pain and all the malicious spyware/malware/Trojans/worms that came about and I was/we are forced to deal with over the next couple decades. A learning curve I did not expect or want to deal with. I was a social person who was active in the community until I got stuck behind the screen being a 'keyboard warrior' as dubbed by an officer on the Law Enforcement Today site. It was too negative for me with the cops & robbers war going on, trying to figure out the good cop/bad cop stuff we witness in the social media. So as Jf Pickersgill so eloquently stated [wife's quote have heard often & agree with] the Internet went from being a way of hooking up Internationally and not knowing who is on the other side of the screen pounding out verbal attacks. Then knowing that anything that we write or send over the Internet is read [we are being spied on by ?????], our lives have not been private since we first took our P.C, out of the box and plugged it in. Snowden blew the cover a few years ago, even though many of us were putting emails and warnings about this long before he left to hang out in the Russia airport. I still think he is the real life Poka Mon 'game players' are looking for
Like · Reply · 19 December at 13:35
Stan Burfield You've had one of the outwardly-rough lives that many of us have had to figure out how to survive, if not thrive in. Mine has been one of the inwardly-rough ones. Same difficulty, just not as obvious to onlookers. But yes, I'm so lucky to have met and married a good one-on-one friend. That's made a huge difference. I probably wouldn't have gotten this far in my self-therapy without Linda.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:26
Brandi Michielsen True Stan, about the outwardly-rough life [my cross to bear/carry in life is quite light in comparison to countless others that I stand in awe and admiration of because of how they have played out the hand they were dealt in life with such dignity and ...See more
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:51
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Robert Gregory Seaton My solution is usually to try to write or speak my opinion from within the point of view of a person who totally disagrees with me and comes from a culture opposite to mine, and try to validate (some might say co-opt :-)) as much of their language and point of view as I can while making my point. Still can't please everyone, though...
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 13:45
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Stan Burfield Interesting solution! I'll have to try that sometime. You do that WHILE you're immersed in a conversation?
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:28
Robert Gregory Seaton Yes. Looking for common context. There's a term for it, which I can never remember - reverse something or other.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:31
Stan Burfield Reverse engineering? As in reverse engineering the convoluted social difficulties back to their original calm and perfection?
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:34
Robert Gregory Seaton Not reverse engineering, no, although a little similar. It's some complicated Greek origin word that I can never remember :-)
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:37
Stan Burfield Right. But to reverse engineer a social or even a personal psychological problem is definitely a funny concept. I wonder: If a person were to expand it out, write it up as a textbook, and give oneself a fake PhD to put on the cover, I wonder if it would instantly be accepted into the annals of science!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:41
Stan Burfield But looking for and speaking into and from common contest...very interesting way of looking at communication.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:42
Stan Burfield I wonder if this common context thing might be something that most socially adept people do automatically to some less obvious degree than you do. Even me, who knows? I'll have to watch myself for it. If that were the case, it might be something that others learn but I never did as a shy person, and should work on.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:53
Robert Gregory Seaton I think it's probably a skill learned as we want to communicate beyond our own "silo". It's been a gradual thing for me, as I branched out from my odd upbringing, and tried to engage with people from more varied (and often more normal) backgrounds. It's also a critical part of our core learning skills when thrust into a completely new area of skill or knowledge - learning to sound like someone who knows the area well, learning to "speak the language". Part of cultural assimilation, but in this case you don't assimilate, you just learn how to speak from within that culture.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:07
Stan Burfield A negative occurs to me, that if everybody did that, no one would ever be true to themselves and everyone would be trying to join a homogenous whole composed of no real people, only of copiers of the others who think they are copying. But I think you're talking about single individuals trying to communicate with other single individuals who are so different that otherwise communication would be nearly impossible.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:14
Robert Gregory Seaton Well, the idea is to remain true to your point of view, but present it in a way that the others can relate to. But I agree that there can be some bleed... Not necessarily a bad thing, though.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:17
Stan Burfield I see. If you can't present it in such a way that they can understand it, there's no point in trying. But if they have no problem understanding it, there's no need to try to get into their context. Although, I think you're talking more about the understanding of what's said than the how it is being said. In which case you want to be able to see out of the person's eyes to some degree.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:22
Stan Burfield I think what you're getting at is a huge thing. We're each isolated in our minds. And because we take in so much and react so strongly to all of it over our lifetimes, not just emotionally, but in terms of understanding how the world works, and therefore then in building our own personal world views, we can become very different from even the others within the culture we grew up inside. And yet when we communicate, we tend to understate. To overstate, in the sense of making sure the other knows what we mean, is to some degree insulting, or at least feels that way by both parties. And yet because such different people constantly understate their communications with each other, a lot of communication is misinterpreted or simply lost. So how do you communicate with someone so different without overstating? You first try to find out how it is that they're different, including their world view and the context of their lives which they drag around with them, as we all do. Then you try to speak to the person as if they were speaking to themselves.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:37
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Donald Brackett keep up the good work blabbermouth!
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 19 December at 13:45
Stan Burfield ha ha
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:29
Al Broudy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQ9-b_Usy8
The Honeymooners - Blabbermouth!
YOUTUBE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 · 19 December at 21:24
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Sherry Leigh Williams Thanks for sharing.I find some folks are confrontational and it is their normal.Others are scared spitless to say what they think, for fear of being attacked. I say what I think, and don't care too much if someone else has a different opinion.You have a lot to share.Sometime sharing in smaller groups is better, especially if you can find likeminded folks.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 14:01
Stan Burfield I was just thinking all I have to do to get a little group of like-minded friends together is to suggest that some of us who read my comments and "like" them go out for coffee one day!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:32
Sherry Leigh Williams great idea.Create a FB a coffee group of folks that you choose.That way you can hang with the long distance friends.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:34
Stan Burfield Maybe I'll try it one day.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:35
Sherry Leigh Williams I do that.My Think Rank 2 page is for interesting dialogue, but is a closed group.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:54
Sherry Leigh Williams Ack my phone Think Tank 2
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:55
Stan Burfield Ah, so that's how that came about!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:56
Sherry Leigh Williams Yes, just grew weary of confrontational,ill informed people
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:57
Stan Burfield Oddly, I felt confrontational when I first went there, with the politically pro-trump people, so I kind of backed away.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 16:59 · Edited
Sherry Leigh Williams No don't be. The point is that we feel safe to say what we think.The discuss the points of view, maybe make some new friends
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:00
Stan Burfield Okay, we'll see.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 17:02
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Pearl Pirie good on you for exploring. there's gains to one-on-one but putting it out there to a circle is different but also useful for growth and self-assurance.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 14:51
Jenny Getsinger Stan, your contributions are a gift to Facebook, real thoughts and feelings. You express what many of us feel also. Thank you for being a good friend.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 19 December at 15:05
Stan Burfield You too, Jenny!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 16:44
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إبراهيم أشعياء عوض I did notice that Stan, the smiley face/ steam head ducotomy! Glad that you're coming out of yourself a little
Say, would you want to start a writer's group? I did that a couple of times in T.O. and it was very productive.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:15
Stan Burfield What would that be like?
Like · Reply · 19 December at 17:24
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Dave Jarrell If you are true to yourself and do not have an agenda to hurt anyone that is the best way to communicate. There will always be differences of opinion so as long as you are being respectful it doesn't matter what the "haters " think.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 December at 18:18
Stan Burfield Good way of looking at it.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 18:34
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Erin Kelly I've enjoyed reading your comments. And sometimes, life does seem like an endless series of embarrassments, and the only rational thing to do when someone makes a show of being offended is to understand that one of the following happened: a) they misinterpreted you; b) they have a different perspective which you may or may not wish to incorporate into your worldview; c) they just want to shit on someone; or d) you were being deliberately or indifferently hurtful and might deserve the backlash. C is a crowd favourite, though the others come into play. I suspect D is not your usual MO.
Like · Reply · 19 December at 23:34
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Stan Burfield To write a poem all you do is hurry up and write down what you just got excited about. You're obviously el-supremo at that!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:00
Erin Kelly You're right, 'cause I was mostly trying to make hot dogs. Do poets even eat hot dogs?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:01
Stan Burfield There are great baseball poems with hot dogs in them.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:02
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield They do say that hot dogs contain everything.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:02
Erin Kelly Maybe some poetry gets in there, with the pigeon butts.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:03
Stan Burfield But also there's that picture of you trying to make them. Just how you put it there is funny in an odd way.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:03
Stan Burfield And there she goes again. Where do you get all this stuff from?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:04
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield It's a rare form of encephalitis.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:05
Stan Burfield Aah. The NATURAL poet...
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:06
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield Hahahaha, yes. Natural derangement is the best kind!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:07
Stan Burfield (speaking of baseball)
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:07
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield I didn't realize they did it in the nude. Aren't you risking some severe skin burns?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:08
Erin Kelly Aaand I think we've come full circle here
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:09
Stan Burfield now you're harking back to the bohemian poets, ha ha
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:09
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield I never hark in public. It's a filthy habit.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:10
Stan Burfield Neither do I. I stick to hocking.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:11
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield Is that where you access the most secret parts of the ankle?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:12
Erin Kelly Using some kind of advanced technology?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:13
Stan Burfield You mean under the stocking?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:13
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield Well, it's probably not under the rose.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:14
Stan Burfield You also have a wild sense of humour.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:14
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:15
Stan Burfield haha
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:15
Erin Kelly As a member of Humanity, I deem you, Stan Burfield, as good as anyone at carrying a conversation and better than most, don't get a big head or anything but I think you're pretty okay and stuff, so there.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:16
Stan Burfield Thanks, Erin. I hereby take my place on the pedestal along with the rest of humanity.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:17
Stan Burfield Crowns all rownd
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:18
Stan Burfield Allright, Erin. Tell me one more funny thing before I head off to bed, it being after midnight here.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:19
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield some people believe in God
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:31
Erin Kelly ba dum dumSee translation
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:32
Stan Burfield Funny, huh? Yeah, in a funny way, it is funny. Much as this picture of me obsessing with my models of reality like an absent-minded professor is funny. Also, a funny thing is that "da dum dum" has a translation tab under it, and when translated it is "Ba-dum"!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:34
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield I forgot the "tss".
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:35
Erin Kelly God help those who forgot the "tss".
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:36 · Edited
Stan Burfield Oh, it's translated from Vietnamese!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:36
Erin Kelly Sleep well and remember to dream.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:37
Stan Burfield tss?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:37
Erin Kelly Yeah. Ba dum tss.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:37
Stan Burfield You are vietnamese!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:37
Erin Kelly Can't have a ba dum without the tss.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:37
Stan Burfield okay. I take your word for it.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:38
Stan Burfield Now. About the people believing in God, I notice that you have capitalized it.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:39
Erin Kelly Don't even. I'm not even close to being a believer in anything supernatural. This includes crystals, horoscopes, and Kombucha.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:40
Stan Burfield That could mean that you went to Sunday School when you were a kid, and that your subconscious still believes in God.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:40
Stan Burfield Speaking for myself, at any rate. A funny thing, you could say.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:41
Erin Kelly Or, that the preponderance of my reading has emphasized the capital. Or, that I was using it in a specifically Christian sense. Or, that I just Like Using Capitals.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:42
Erin Kelly I was being provincial- the second one is truest.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:42
Stan Burfield You're saying the You're an Emphatic Person?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:43
Stan Burfield oh
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:43
Stan Burfield respectful
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:43
Erin Kelly Haha. It so happens that I was raised Catholic. And I don't Respect it One Little Bit.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:44
Stan Burfield which, in itself, contradicts to some degree your assertion that some people believing in God is a funny thing.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:44
Stan Burfield You're definitly confusing me now.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:44
Stan Burfield Okay, let's be serious for a second. Why do you not respect it?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:45
Erin Kelly Huh? I can be funny. Everyone is funny sometimes. I ain't special.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:45
Stan Burfield right. but not everyone who is being funny is actually funny.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:46
Erin Kelly I can be stupid. I can be perverse. I can be contradictory. I can be wrong. I can be right. I can be in flux.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:46
Erin Kelly I don't respect it because it's patently false. There is no god. I don't like people lying to me.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:48
Stan Burfield Well, like everyone, I guess. But unlike everyone, you seem to enjoy all that. Most people, I think, okay I'm generalizing, try very hard to be only one of those things.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:48
Erin Kelly Yes, it's especially unfunny when people try to be wrong all the time.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:49
Stan Burfield Right.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:49
Stan Burfield TRY to be wrong?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:50
Erin Kelly On the other hand, I very much love and respect some People who believe in god. I just happen to argue with them a lot.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:50
Erin Kelly The ones who seem to live for punishment.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:51
Stan Burfield Me too. I used to argue with them a lot, but not any more. I even argued for someone to keep their faith once.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:51
Erin Kelly Truth isn't always beauty.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:52
Erin Kelly I think you need to be pretty lucky to feel safe enough not to need a god.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:53
Stan Burfield Yes, truth is quite an inhuman thing. It doesn't care whether a person feels good. Like nature itself.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:53
Erin Kelly Perhaps truth is fundamentally incompatible with culture.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:54
Stan Burfield Yes, I'm caught in the middle. I wish I had a god but Truth is my pasture.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:54
Erin Kelly I like wheatgrass, but not those green shotglasses of goop you can get at the juice places!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:55
Stan Burfield Truth is unnesessary, that's for sure. What is necessary is everybody agreeing on things.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:55
Stan Burfield ha ha. I'm more of a cow. I get mine in a meadow.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:56
Erin Kelly Like where to put your cold feet in bed. Not in the pits of my knees, damn you!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:56
Stan Burfield Right. That's something people should be able to agree on.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:57
Erin Kelly Yeah, I'd forego the grass cause there are some sick shrooms out there.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:57
Stan Burfield Well, Erin, you need something to make Truth a little tasty.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:58
Erin Kelly You want a fresh shot of truth, whooee!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:58
Stan Burfield Oh God. by injection.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:58
Erin Kelly no, by munching with your fingers pinching your nose closed.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:59
Stan Burfield Hay, Erin. Do you want to take this and make a poem out of it?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 00:59
Stan Burfield Truth can be smelly.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:00
Erin Kelly No way Stanzay! I throw out the ideers, you do the work, how about that? :D
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:01
Stan Burfield So tell me, was it your mother who was the religious one?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:01
Erin Kelly They were both ambivalent, but the Catholic school had a quality education.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:02
Stan Burfield Really, you're much better at it than I am, that's obvious.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:02
Erin Kelly Stan Burfield It's obvious you don't realize your own abilities!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:02
Stan Burfield Oh, they just tossed you over the fence and went home.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:03
Erin Kelly For instance, doing the work whilst I make amusing asides.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:03
Stan Burfield Now you're being very funny again.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:03
Erin Kelly Unfortunately, the fence had a gate so I was able to return every day.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:04
Stan Burfield We're over a hundred replies already. You still have more amusing asides left in there?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:05
Stan Burfield Well, it let you out too.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:05
Stan Burfield What's that, the glass half full?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:06
Erin Kelly It 'pends on whether you fill it from the bottom or the top.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:06
Erin Kelly I like to start with the bottom, it's bouncier
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:07
Stan Burfield A funny thing happened when Erin tried to fill it from the bottom.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:07
Erin Kelly Shit happens.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:07
Stan Burfield uh, yeah, I'm looking for the humour here....
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:08
Erin Kelly You should be looking closer to the intestines, the humor is too widespread.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:08
Erin Kelly Think you have the gall to answer?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:10
Stan Burfield I'd rather look in the head to tell the truth. Humour is some kind of slippery material that causes something like depression, I think, not too funny either.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:10
Erin Kelly That's a phlegmatic way of seeing it.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:10
Stan Burfield ugh. yeah flem
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:11
Stan Burfield as in Phlegmish.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:11
Erin Kelly I like Vermeer.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:11
Stan Burfield me too. the woman in pastels reading.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:12
Erin Kelly yes!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:12
Stan Burfield wearing pastels. huh!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:12
Stan Burfield I can see her face. Oddly, she looked a lot like you.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:13
Erin Kelly better than pasties
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:13
Stan Burfield pfshaw!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:13
Erin Kelly or maybe not, depending
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:13
Erin Kelly *haw* depending
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:13
Stan Burfield on a number of things
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:14
Erin Kelly Actually, just two
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:14
Stan Burfield two's a good number
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:14
Erin Kelly two IS a number, I admit
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:15
Stan Burfield and a good one
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:15
Erin Kelly bilateral symmetry for the win
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:15
Stan Burfield Gawd
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:15
Stan Burfield aw, that's your similarity, bilateral symmetry
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:16
Stan Burfield nice jingle to that line
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:17
Erin Kelly nice jiggle too
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:17
Stan Burfield that goes without saying.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:17
Erin Kelly I'm eating a radish
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:18
Erin Kelly to make up for the hot dog
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:18
Stan Burfield of course. ha ha
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:18
Stan Burfield better for you
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:19
Erin Kelly I'm going to go to bed and read Gimpel the Fool
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:19
Erin Kelly great short stories
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:19
Stan Burfield Just thinking that myself, minus the Gimpel. Who's Gimpel?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:20
Erin Kelly A fool.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:20
Stan Burfield a fool fool?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:20
Erin Kelly except not really. He's a sucker, but he knows what's important in life.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:20
Erin Kelly Everyone makes fun of him, but he always does kind things.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:20
Stan Burfield a fool who wishes he wasn't a fool, then?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:21
Erin Kelly No bad thing that happens to him can make him mean.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:21
Erin Kelly No, others treat him as a fool, and he never does learn to distrust others.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:21
Erin Kelly Yet he lives a good life.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:21
Stan Burfield Are you serious?
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:21
Erin Kelly Yes! It's a great short story, and a great collection. Issac Bashevis SInger.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:22
Erin Kelly HIghly recommend it.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:22
Erin Kelly Pre WWII in the Jewish ghettos of Poland.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:22
Stan Burfield Ah. I just about said that in Yedish.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:23
Stan Burfield Just about said Radish.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:23
Erin Kelly :D
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:23
Erin Kelly G'night Stan!
Like · Reply · 20 December at 01:23
Norma Linder Didn't Shakespeare say it best: This above all, to thine own self be true.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 20 December at 13:48
Stan Burfield Right. There it is.
Like · Reply · 20 December at 13:52
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Cambridge N Calvin Keenan ❤💛💚💛❤ your such a good sport Stan ❤
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 20 December at 17:06