Occasionally I come across a friend of someone I know who I am interested in getting to know on FB. Usually, I send them a short, polite, friendly note. Some decline by not responding. Perfectly reasonable. Some people are friendly, or interested, and we become friends here. What I usually like best is people who are enthusiastic, intelligent, curious and excitable, since I am like that, in general.

Some ask a question or two first, which is wise. But some people send back some kind of seething threat or a string of insults… and when this happens I am always tempted to re-post it, so that the people who have them as friends can be aware that there’s a sick dog in their kennel, and it’s frothing at people they know…

But this experience is actually really useful just because it screws with my expectations so profoundly, and shakes me up, and makes me see everything differently for a moment. That aspect of it actually helps me learn, even though the stimulus appears to be violent/rejecting/critical, etc.

So, strangely, I want to actually thank Ms. A. Shostak for the single ugliest response I have ever received. I keep learning from those 15 words you wrote in reply to my friendly note — every day. And I want to thank those people who respond with joy, trust, and wonder — for your direct demonstrations of care and humanity feed my soul and sustain my heart.