Social Networks: Good or bad?

I am not one that follows a lot of people on Facebook, however, from time to time I tend to browse and see what´s going on in the lives of the people that follow me. The reason I do not follow a lot of people is that I have over 800 friends and if I do not select whom I want to follow, I would not see those that are more involved in my life at the moment.

Sunday morning, Easter Sunday to be exact, while I was waiting for my luncheon goodies to bake, I decided to browse a bit to see the upcoming birthdays. I reached the page of a very close friend who lives in another state, whom I hadn´t heard from in a while, and my heart sank.

On her profile page there were messages saying stuff like:… now you can fly…;… there is a party happening in heaven…; …You will be missed. My eyes welled up and I could not believe (I did not want to believe) what I was reading- my friend had passed away.

All of a sudden the light in my room dimmed. Sadness took over and a big hole opened up under my feet. The initial shock is always the worse and when the dust settles you tend to think better. The heart finally lets the mind take over and you start to put pieces together.

So I decided that I would write to one of those people who were leaving condolences messages on the profile page to find out what was going on. My hope was that it was a prank because after all, the messages were being left on the 1^st of April, April Fool´s Day. But then again, who would be so sick as to play this kind of joke on others and laugh about it?

Fortunately, the person I had written to was on line therefore, I got an immediate response. It was true. My friend had passed away on the 1^st of April, but this person didn´t know what the cause of death was because she was out of town at the time and would only find out what had happened the week after.

At that moment I turned off the computer and as I prayed tears rolled down my face. Nonetheless, my stomach told me that we would still need to digest this whole story and it would take some time.

The good thing about Facebook is that if she didn´t have a profile page, I would never have found out that she had passed away. Another good thing is that her friend was online; therefore I was able to get an immediate answer to my doubt. However, I found out about her death in such a cold and distant way. I can´t really decide whether it is good or bad. What do you think?

(Written: April 7, 2015- In honor of the death of Lori Jean Lopategui who passed on April 1^st. A cheerful and kind friend. Rest in peace my dear friend and until we meet again. )
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Lori Jean Lopategui

The Girl Who Freed Stones

A small Kindergarten girl who really enjoyed going to school had a strange habit. It might have been a strange habit to some people, but to her she was just saving the world and making a difference. Making a difference was really important to her at that age for she wanted the world to be a better and happier place.

While her peers were collecting spiders, ants and other gruesome creatures, she would collect stones. Little stones.  Big stones. Round stones. Odd – shaped stones. White stones. Gray stones. Any kind of stones. It did not matter the shape, color or size; she would pick up any stone she could find on her breaks at school or on the way home. The minute she reached her home she would set them free wish them a long beautiful life.

Stones to her were living beings and they deserved a better place; which just so happened to be her backyard. It was colorful filled with flowers and had a comforting lawn where she was sure her stone friends would be happier. However, deep down inside she feared that she would get caught. Because, in her mind, she was stealing from school but if she put the stones in her yard it would be all right due to the fact that she was placing them in a more pleasant environment.

One Monday morning when she arrived at school, she was told that they would be going on a field trip to a petting zoo nearby. All the kids were excited and so was she for she was certain to save many stones on that day.

As soon as she got off the bus she saw a big wonderfully brownish, yellowish almost square stone. She picked it up carefully and placed it into her backpack. She was ecstatic for this was the day that she would free the most stones ever. The petting zoo was a place for the animals and not stones. The visitors just kicked the stones around and it really must have hurt them was what she thought.

 As the day went by, her backpack kept getting heavier and heavier. She started to worry about not being able to save that many stones because of the weight of her backpack. She was not such a big girl after all. Being so tired from carrying all those stones all day long, she fell asleep on the bus on her way back to school. Her mother was there waiting for her and eager to hear all about the field trip.

When her mother picked up her backpack, she let it drop. The little girl screamed. The mother turned to her little girl and simply asked: what do you have in your backpack, honey? Stones?

( Written: April 1, 2015 ) Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

Photo: Google Images