Mar. 15th, 2019 02:58 pm
150,000 men and women every day
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muckefuckI had a weird evening. As I was unwinding in bed, I noticed a post from a fellow widow about having contracted an STI. It was his first time playing around since his husband's death and I was concerned he'd give in to moralistic guilt feelings so I messaged him reassuring him that it was just bad luck and he shouldn't read anything else into it.
We ended up chatting for over an hour. As 11:30 p.m. inched closer, I thought I really should beg off (especially since I plan to go out tonight) but then it occurred to me, so what if I'm a mess tomorrow, nothing I'm likely to do at work is more important than comforting a soul in distress. So I kept chatting until he thought he could sleep.
At the same time, I saw a post fromnitouche, who's in Christchurch with her family. Her husband was caught in the lockdown (they weren't letting anyone leave the university grounds); it was the first I heard of the tragedy. So I was toggling between comforting a grieving stranger and looking for updates on the latest mass shooting to gain international attention.
I went to bed hoping the attack wasn't as bad as it sounded; I woke up to a massacre worse than I'd imagined. I already had to hide the feed of one person on my flist who thoughtlessly shared a link to a tabloid article studded with stills from the livestream. Then on one of my discussion groups our token MRA and Jordan Peterson stan went full-blown apologist for terrorism.
Just as well that I have a busy weekend coming up which will keep me off social media. I'll still be popping in often to check on my fellow widow (amongst others) but hopefully I can fight the temptation to check out the worst of what the Internet has to offer for a while.
We ended up chatting for over an hour. As 11:30 p.m. inched closer, I thought I really should beg off (especially since I plan to go out tonight) but then it occurred to me, so what if I'm a mess tomorrow, nothing I'm likely to do at work is more important than comforting a soul in distress. So I kept chatting until he thought he could sleep.
At the same time, I saw a post from
nitouche, who's in Christchurch with her family. Her husband was caught in the lockdown (they weren't letting anyone leave the university grounds); it was the first I heard of the tragedy. So I was toggling between comforting a grieving stranger and looking for updates on the latest mass shooting to gain international attention.I went to bed hoping the attack wasn't as bad as it sounded; I woke up to a massacre worse than I'd imagined. I already had to hide the feed of one person on my flist who thoughtlessly shared a link to a tabloid article studded with stills from the livestream. Then on one of my discussion groups our token MRA and Jordan Peterson stan went full-blown apologist for terrorism.
Just as well that I have a busy weekend coming up which will keep me off social media. I'll still be popping in often to check on my fellow widow (amongst others) but hopefully I can fight the temptation to check out the worst of what the Internet has to offer for a while.
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