Well, I haven’t completely left Facebook these past four months. I still use Messenger and WhatsApp to help a few with their English, and with Messenger, I have to log on Facebook. The two posts came from briefly—oh, so briefly—reading something before I clicked to go on Messenger. That’s how Facebook sucks me in, and I’m not sure I’m alone in that regard. One was a nice picture of a friend, the other a birthday.
Still, I haven’t been on Facebook for four months. I was spending too much time there and was depressed by the news, the conspiracy theories, the religious and other Trump supporters with their double standards and terrible grammar, the requests to march, sign, donate, all the great things everybody else was doing that I wasn’t, and not liking some of the rather nasty comments I received, some of which were from friends.
It took 37 days before anybody wrote me asking if I were OK, which was heartening, longer before any of my friends whom I have actually met, noticed. Indeed, had I not asked in person how a trip was, they might not have ever figured out I wasn’t logging on. Messenger and WhatsApp are also Facebook owned, so I can’t say that I am boycotting the organization, much as I might like. It reminds me of my brother’s comment about the UFW (the United Farm Workers, for those who are too young to remember) decades ago. He said he wasn’t boycotting California produce because if he boycotted everything produced by right-wing farmers, he’d starve to death. If I boycotted every communication corporation, I’d correspond with almost nobody.
It was nice that I hadn’t posted anything between 22 and 24 May, avoiding getting caught up in yet another of Facebook’s many data compromises that somehow keep on occurring.
Mornings, I now spend 45 minutes reading the major articles and the online opinions in The New York Times. I don’t agree with all of the commentators by any means, but they are far better than the comments I read on Facebook. Besides, if I go to a news site from Facebook, I can guarantee I will start getting spam emails that same day which will require my going in, unsubscribing, and being told it will be 10 business days (read: three weeks, since Fridays and Mondays are not devoted to business other than leaving early or catching up) before the emails disappear.
In conversations with my wife and friends, I often quote one of the articles. I get facts, which I don’t need to check, add a “like” or comment. I read interesting articles, avoid time wasting videos and the commentary below, thereby avoiding many arguments with those whom I think are wrong but will never admit it. I like the Times’ op-eds, the regular columnists, superb journalists. I understand what is going on in the world, the problem with Tasers we don’t hear about, mindfulness meditation, differences in metabolism, why indigestible oligosaccharides are important in infants (the gut biome) and why waist size is important.
I no longer worry about posting what I have done, a time-consuming process that led to answering comments or spending irreplaceable minutes seeing who liked it, which didn’t matter, but somehow I let myself get caught up in it. I try to do a brief meditation in the morning and evening, because the Times had a good article about it with recordings I could download and play back at my convenience.
I spend maybe twenty minutes on weather models I have access to. I finally have the European Medium Range Model (ECMWF) which along with the Global Forecast (GFS) gives me an excellent idea of what is coming weather-wise long before I read about it. I’ve made significant progress as a amateur meteorologist, but there is still much I have to learn.
GFS model for late 18 June 2018 showing cyclonic circulation (upper level low pressure) over southern Idaho with NE wind flow (blue arrows) that has already produced precipitation in western Oregon and which will will produce northern Rockies precipitation in the coming days. The numbers are dekameters where 500 mB pressure (half the normal atmospheric pressure) is located.
I have time to get caught up on The New Yorker, Outside, Astronomy, and High Country News. Sometimes I download books to the Kindle. I discover books I am interested in by reading a lot; I tend to automatically turn off when somebody tells me “I should read….” If I took everybody’s reading advice, I wouldn’t do anything else with my life.
I’m not sure Facebook has anything to do with the fact that I am not leading as many hikes this year for the Club. Either way, that is good for me. I’m not taking as many group hikes, either, because I don’t know what I am getting into on a hike led by someone else unless I know the area where we are going. Mileage can be wrong, more hiking can be added, and unplanned stops at bars or restaurants on the way home make it impossible for me to plan, and I like to plan. It’s difficult for a few who count on me to lead something so they can go outside, but they can go anytime, just like me. I’m starting to do trail work occasionally with the High Cascade Volunteers, and I have adopted a Cascade trail. This is important, worthwhile work with good people trying to care for public land in a time of scarce resources.
I’ve become a better naturalist. On my 4 mile walk through Alton Baker Park today, I identified 31 species of wildflowers. So far this year, I have 109 on my list; only 18 of them I would have known last year. That’s fun. I saw a beautiful Spotted Towhee yesterday, instead of just hearing the zzzssst. Today I saw crows dive bombing a hawk, a pair of Osprey high overhead, and a Steller’s Jay down at the river, an unusual place for one. Next week I will do some trail clearing in the Three Sisters Wilderness and some trail scouting for clearing in the Waldo Lake Wilderness. There’s a whole world out there to learn more about.
Inside, I keep my German alive with my daily crime video. I spend time with online bridge, where I am learning to count the hand, something not nearly as easy to do as experts think. Counting the hand requires speed, which most experts can do automatically, but those of us slow processors require time. By playing hands on a computer, I can swear at a partner who doesn’t exist or complain about bad suit breaks without appearing as a total ass. If and when I can play and accept the bad with grace, I will be both a better person and ready to join others in duplicate. I’m not ready, but I am making progress.
Return to Facebook? We’ll see. Right now I am trying to help my corner of the world by keeping it beautiful, enjoying it, be it hiking, backpacking, canoeing, adopting trails, picking up litter, tutoring students in math, keeping my German alive, tipping generously, giving cats a home when we have a vacancy, and making sure I am doing those things that optimize my health as I understand the science. There’s plenty to do, and as I soon begin my eighth decade, I need to turn to.
Tags: General writing, Philosophy
Boreal B[l]og 
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