One sister commented yesterday, in one of the social media paragraphs of the Watchtower Study, that if she mentions sports, soon her feed fills with sports. If she mentions vacations, soon her feed fills with vacations. If she mentions tableware, soon her feed fills with tableware, and so forth. She followed this with: “We talk about Jehovah all the time in my household. But never, ever has “Jehovah” popped up on my media notifications. Not even once.”
It wasn’t stated as proof of anything, but whatever it was not stated as proof of, it sure did prove it.
That social media paragraph made me think of a certain journalist commenting on the democracy that we are all used to in our neck of the woods: He described it as “the pathetic belief that individual ignorance adds up to collective wisdom.” Nothing is more democratic than social media, in which a truly thoughtful remark is immediately followed up by one from a complete moron, who nonetheless has equal time.
Then there was material on how easy it is to distort with half-truths, and how social media slams us all with ideas undercutting Christian values, so that one must be on the alert lest they be swept along with the tide.
It all brought to mind for me the public speaking brother who played up being honest with your children, even in areas parents don’t usually think about. He told of the child who, when young, asked her parents if Santa was real. The parents assured her that he was. There were some kids down the street, however, who told Sally the truth.
When she lost her baby teeth, her parents told her that there was a tooth fairy who would leave some cash under her pillow. The kids down the street told her the truth.
When Easter came, her parents told her about the Easter Bunny….a generous rabbit who would fill your basket with chocolate eggs. The kids down the street told her the truth.
Sally reached adolescence and her responsible parents told her about sex.
But she‘d never gotten a straight answer from her folks. It was always nonsense. The kids down the street, on the other hand, had never been wrong. And so, with regard to sex, they had a different explanation, and the boys among them offered to demonstrate. She really came to resent them later—but also her parents, for have always served her garbage.
****** The bookstore
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