I may be one of the last people on earth to figure out Pinterest, but hey, at least I did figure it out!
I've grown from merely "liking" what others have pinned on their boards, to actually pinning things of interest to my very own board.
Not sure that I really need a cyber pin board for collecting, say, my favorite recipes, since I don't cook or bake. And I have no sense of fashion, can't afford to remodel my home, and I'm not the least bit crafty so I never make my own presents for birthdays, baby showers or weddings. And God knows I never go on a vacay, so...my pinning interests are, admittedly, limited.
Nevertheless, I put together my first official Pinterest board, named it "Menopausal Wisdom". Why? Because, unlike cooking and baking and fashion and crafts, menopause is something I am familiar with at this point in my life.
So I decided to collect and pin a variety of what I consider to be inspirational sayings that empower me and hopefully others who find themselves standing, albeit estrogen-less and flashing warmth, on the flip side of menses.
Not a "how to survive menopause" pin board, mind you, more of a "personal wisdom/bravado I have gleaned since PMS no longer rules my brain" sort of board.
Like I need one more social media activity to pull me away from my real life responsibilities.
I figured out the intricacies of blogging six years ago, and for a while, that took over my life. Was one blog enough? Was two too many? I was hooked, and spent countless hours posting to The Home Stretch, and to the news blog I designed, The Independent Eye. I developed Blogger Eye, my housework went to hell in a cyber handbasket, and my family just got used to me staying up in my attic writing room for hours blogging.
About three years ago, much to my teenaged son's chagrin, I discovered Facebook. OMG! Connecting with all my old high school pals and college cohorts? Heaven! Like having a class reunion at one's fingertips! Just click and voila!
Admittedly, at first, I was staying up until the wee hours of the morning taking meaningless Facebook quizzes like "What TV Sitcom Mom Are You?"
Granted, I already knew which TV mom I wasn't, thanks to my husband who, many moons back ( during one of his, um, disagreeable moments), blurted out, "Well, you are certainly no June Cleaver!" Oooh, snap!
But I digress.
My point -- and I do have one -- is that Facebook has been a wonderful way for me -- someone stuck out in the Iowa heartland, many miles from her childhood/college peeps -- to stay connected to the outside world. And as a former phone-a-holic (when Ma Bell owned all the landlines), instant messaging and reading my friend's status updates/posting mine is a much more cost effective way to reach out and touch someone that I love and miss.
(I do Tweet occasionally, by the way, but I just haven't fallen in love with Twitter like I did Facebook.)
Lately, however, I've been using my Facebook wall as a bit of a cyber political pulpit, posting links to articles from around the web pointing out that the hate-laden rhetoric being spewed by the Republican Christian/family values presidential candidates is in direct opposition to what Jesus commanded us to do. As in "love they neighbor". And how Jesus called us to take care of the least, the last and the lost, not shun them. It is, I've decided, my contribution to battling hate, bigotry and ignorance.
Will it do any good? Will my Facebook page help win over those who agree with the haters, those who are haters themselves? Can I convince them to be beacons of love and light, not hate and darkness?
That remains to be seen...and I may never know...but thanks to Pinterest -- and a pinch of menopausal bravado -- I now have a whole new philosophy about trying to convert the haters. Check out my latest pin:
Yeah. I know. Jesus most likely would not pin that on his board.
But he just might click the "like" button.
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