One of the things that I've always wanted Living Life Fully to be is an online haven. I've wanted it to be a place where people can come to find positive thoughts when they've needed them, to find solace when life has become tempestuous, to find good when they seem to be surrounded or inundated with bad. After all, there are already plenty of websites where people can find political content that addresses the difficulties and wrongs of our current world--so what's wrong with providing a place that's dedicated to peace and understanding and kindness and compassion?
The answer is simple, of course: there's nothing wrong with it. It's nice to provide a site full of content that's devoted to helping us to accept life and live it as it is, and to find ways to change things that would be better off changed (once we've accepted those things, of course).
Personally, I'm very much against the current political trends in the United States. Never in my life did I expect to see in my own country a governmental agency such as ICE that works outside of the law to harass and beat and kidnap people. Never did I expect to see a president who profiteers from his position and who spews constant insults, lies, and misinformation. Never did I expect to see representatives and senators who are so afraid of voting against party lines that they refuse to do so, helping laws to be passed that deprive huge numbers of people of many of their much-needed resources and services.
And never did I expect to see such a large part of the American populace not just being okay with all this, but actually celebrating the fact that other people in this country are losing rights and resources and services. They're celebrating other people's pain and frustration and loss.
But the question I face is whether or not I should use the website to speak out against such things. And I feel that the answer is in the purpose of the site--to provide people with a place online where they can find uplifting and motivational material all day, every day, any time they wish. Once I start adding political content, then the site changes, and not everyone will feel welcome there. I have other ways that I can speak out against political actions and societal problems--I don't have to do so on livinglifefully.com. So I won't.
That said, I don't want to simply say "The site is what it is and will never change." That strategy wouldn't help a bit to make the site more helpful and relevant, and it could actually cause the site to be irrelevant sooner rather than later to large numbers of people. And as I said in my last post, the world is changing, and more and more people are finding themselves displaced, disenfranchised, and frightened and lonely and helpless. How can the site change to help them, when and if they find it? What can be added to the content? How can the presentation change? What would be most useful to more people? These are the questions that I must ask myself as the site moves forward in time, and as the world changes around us. What can I offer the world that would help the world, even in the smallest of ways, without becoming political and probably alienating a large number of people?
Finland has introduced something new into their school curricula: How to recognize fake news and false information online. They've recognized that not being able to recognize these things seriously inhibits their citizens' ability to make the most of their lives and to contribute to society in positive ways. It's a brave new direction to take, and one that most people probably would acknowledge is a necessary step in the world of today. Hopefully, they'll be successful in Finland--but it's obvious that other countries haven't done anything to deal with some of the new elements that the Internet has brought into our lives. So much fake news is dedicated to trying to get people to hate or mistrust other people, and we're being more and more divided by this "tool" that is supposed to improve our lives by making more information available to us. The people who make decisions about school curricula in Finland have recognized this fact, and they're doing something to fight it, through the education of their young people.
I'd like the site to be like Finland--help people to recognize and accept problems, and then take some sort of action to counter them. In fact, this has been the goal of the site for the last 25+ years. But I'm feeling and thinking that more and more, the recognition of problems is getting more difficult because people are learning to be more self-righteous, and less willing to look at themselves and their words and actions in a critical way, which is the only way to look at ourselves if we truly want to improve in any way. And by "critical" I mean critiquing, and not criticizing--there's a huge difference between the two concepts.
What does it mean to maintain a haven while still addressing many of the needs and challenges that people are now facing? How do I make the site more responsive to some of the awful things that people are experiencing and feeling without turning the site into a politically active site, one that becomes mired in controversy and that takes sides, necessarily leaving some people feeling isolated and alienated? Do I want to say "This site is only for people who believe what I believe," or do I want to say, "This site is for everyone who wants to come here and read, no matter what your political views or opinions"?
I believe that this last question is rhetorical, of course. It has to be the latter. And I say this even though I don't respect many of the opinions that we're seeing expressed these days--opinions that other people's rights don't mean anything, that certain people aren't deserving of the protection of the law, that certain people aren't deserving of any sort of kindness or compassion simply because of their race or their national origin.
But I know that the site must transcend all of these issues, and simply be available for anyone who wants or needs the words of wisdom that come from such a broad spectrum of sources. And so it shall.
I don't think that any changes that happen have to be changes of content. Rather, I believe that they must be changes in presentation. What kinds of quotations and passages should be grouped together on a page? How might a person find hope in the words of others who have lived through similar trials? These are the questions that I'll be asking myself as I try to figure out what to do and how to do it. And as always, any comments or suggestions are more than welcome. My hope is that the site can be helpful to someone, somewhere, somehow, and I have to let go of any need to know about that helpfulness and just trust that it may happen.
So that's what I'll do. Thanks for listening, and thanks for being here!
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