The Difference

So I signed up for Facebook recently.

I know.

Gasp.

Me, privacy-loving, anti-media, anti-faddish, who doesn't really want to read what anyone else is eating for breakfast, lunch or dinner, I joined friggin' Facebook.  I didn't want to sign up, but I was desperate, a woman on the edge.  I mean, how am I supposed to follow my favorite local mini-dairy if I don't sign up?    What's a person who wants local, organic, low-temp pasteurized, non-homogenized dairy products supposed to do? 

Sign up.

Anyway, one good thing that's come from signing up for Facebook is the amount of introspection it encourages.  Yes, FB encourages introspection.  Who'da thunk it?  They ask all the questions that one wouldn't ask in polite company.  What's your faith?  What's your political persuasion?  What's your outlook?  Who shaped and inspired you?  And what I've discovered is how much I've changed in the past 4 years.  Many of the friends from long ago who have friended me recently probably wouldn't recognize me now.  I look the same, more or less.  My great-grandma always said my looks never changed, just matured.  I like that.  What's done a total reversal is my outlook on faith, politics, worldview, people, life.  You know.  Pretty much everything.

Here's what I used to believe: That Democrats were good, Republicans were bad and that you could pretty much trust the US Gov.  Wow.  I know.  I was so young.  Now I know that Dems and Reps are both off their rockers and you can't trust either.  And the USGov...well, just make sure you lock your doors and keep your firearms out of sight.

I used to believe that people are basically good, smart, hard-working and want to accomplish something with their lives.  That no one wants to be poor, sick or drug-addicted.  Wow again.

I used to believe that vast, right-wing/left-wing, opinion-swaying conspiracy theories were something out of colorful imaginations and mystery novels.  Now I believe it.  See Fast and Furious for more details.

I used to support the world-policing that the US practices.  Now I think we need to get our butts home and stay here until someone, oh I don't know, ASKS FOR OUR HELP.

I used to support gun control.  Yeah, can you believe it?  I just didn't see the need for every Tom, Dick or Harry to be sporting an assault rifle.  Then I realized that freedom to bear arms is the ultimate checkmate.  Why do you think the British were so keen to disarm us?  Oh, I know, that was a long time ago and times change.  Times change, but the heart of man doesn't. 

I also used to believe that I was free to make my own choices, frame my future, raise my children the way I WANT to raise my children.  No, no and no.  There are czars for that.

And global warming, political correctness and the green movement...yikes, yikes, yikes. 

Yeah.  Everything has changed.  But, to quote my BFF Suz: "It's okay.  I'm not bitter." 

Believe it or not, I actually have a great deal of hope for the future.  I think much of America has woken up in the past couple of years to the garbage and nonsense going on behind the stage.  Toto has pulled back the curtain, so to speak.

I'm at ease with the choices I've made in life.  At some point, a few years ago, I woke up to the realization that you can never actually catch the rat in the old rat race.  That no matter how fast you run, all you see is the rat's butt.  That there's no point in trying to be/keep up with the Joneses. That enough is enough.  That sometimes quiet, still and small is really superior to all else.     

I find great peace in the Saviour and knowing all this nonsense is no surprise to Him.  He's the one individual who really has my back, all the time and in all cases, and I owe my rescue and my hope to Him.

I'm not sure what brought on all these changes.  Maturity?  Motherhood?  Salvation?  All of the above?  All I can tell you is that it's amazing the difference 4 years can make.