"...Silence Really Is Golden...In Large Measure, I Imagine, Because It's In Such Short Supply..."

Nature, we are taught at some point in our elementary educational experience, abhors a vacuum.

Put into a more "mottos for dummies" form, any space left lying around empty will inevitably get filled up with something, anything.

One universally relatable example is that hole we all try to dig in the sand at the beach, the one that fills with water and, no matter how hard we try or fast we dig, we can't keep ahead of the water determined to fill it.

I'm reminded of that hole, among others, every time I scan online news sites or spend more than five or six minutes watching any kind of "news" program on television.

And try to determine, for myself, what's wheat and what's chaff amongst the miles and miles and miles of crops being grown out there.

Don't mind tellin' ya, I think the chaff is getting the upper hand.

A lovely lady from my checkered past who spent her working years as a reporter for a medium market news station used to make reference to "feeding the monster", the metaphorical allusion, of course, being that television, by its twenty four/seven nature, required a never ending supply of "in" in order to facilitate the "out" required when you're broadcasting twenty four/seven.

Then, of course, in recent years, the original, accept no substitutes media monster had an offspring, so to speak.

"...from the twisted minds who brought you the monster classic, "T.V", comes a ravenous beast that makes television look tame....look out, it's everywhere...all the time...it's...it's...."WWW dot"...........

Buzzkills (read common sense advocates and most Republicans) will simply roll eyes and offer that the solution to the "problem" is a simple, classic "duhh" category no brainer.

Turn the damn thing, or things, off.

Fair point.

But let's keep it real, okay? and just admit to ourselves and each other that approach really doesn't work for most people.

If it did, then "just say no" would have been the end of the drug problem in this country.

And Jenny Craig would have never become a household name.

I'm not sure how to whittle the www down to make it taste great and be less filling (obscure TV ad reference, Googling required for those under the age of thirty five), but I remember a time when television kept itself trim and toned by following that aforementioned buzzkill suggestion.

And, in effect, turned itself off every night.

Then, the whole monster feeding issue became moot mathematically.

Fewer hours to fill, less mindless, mundane, mediocre material necessary to fill them.

That's the problem with this technologically wondrous time in which we live.

There's never a good national anthem and test pattern/snowy screen around when we need one.

'...What A Friend We Have In Jesus...Provided, Of Course, We Have Sufficient Friends In Common..."

ox·y·mo·ron/ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/
Noun:
A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true).

Military intelligence.

Jumbo shrimp.

Free gift.

Facebook friend.

For not the first, nor, I'm sure, the last time, I've inadvertently pau de deux'd myself into a faux pas regarding the "policy" Facebook has when it comes to sending friend requests.

Here's my petulant pau de problem with their policy of preemption.

First, I was simply scrolling, innocently and innocuously through the list of "People You May Know" that Zuckerberg's zone of social zeitgeist, itself, zapped up on my page. It's not like I was hanging around the status update bar waiting for chicks I could hit on to come wandering by.

Second, the "policy" seems (and this isn't my first rodeo with this issue) contraindicated on a "social networking" site. Isn't one primary facet of social networking in the "real world" getting about the business of meeting new people and/or potential new contacts and/or friends.

Hellloo. Markie Mark? Mingle. Ever heard of it? It's something people who interact with one another in ways other than typing on a keyboard/clicking a mouse somewhere other than their mother's basement do when they socialize.

I'm pretty sure that Zuckerberg and his gang of geek have never read, let alone grasped the concept of, "Catch-22" as evidenced by the fact that this friend policy apparently puts one and all into the position of being solicited, even encouraged, to make new friends, provided, of course, that any new friends you wish to make are friends you already have.

Third, I'm not sure whether to chuckle good naturedly or change my name and move to another town to avoid the shame and embarrassment of having people find out that my "friend request privileges" have been "suspended for two days" because I "apparently sent friend requests to people with whom I do not have a sufficient number of friends in common" to justify having sent said friend requests.

Ostensibly, the purpose of the policy is to protect the populace from "abuse", whatever that means and/or however that is defined on planet Facebook.

Gotta tell ya, though, while I'm totally down with bouncing people's sorry asses off the site should they send inappropriate, offensive, profane, et al messages, pictures, et al to other Faces, I'm having a hard time getting my head around the logic behind "hi, nice to meet you...would you like to be added to my list?" being perceived as a threat to anybody.

Can't help but be reminded of a favorite theological perspective.

You can ask God for anything.

Anything.

Because God can always just say no.

Facebook actually provides a similar option for people who receive "friend requests" from people they're not interested in adding to their list.

It's called delete.

So, paraphrasing a poignant old saying, to all those folks who aren't strangers, just friends I haven't met yet, I'm sorry that I won't have the opportunity to make your acquaintance.

Mark Zuckerberg won't let me meet you because you and I haven't already met.

And should you decide, in some moment of weakness, that you might like to meet me, you want to be sure that we've already met.

I don't want to be responsible for you having to spend two days in the penalty box.

No need to thank me.

That's what friends are for.