Who Really Cares

Full disclosure:  I have no idea what Google circles are.  Or Google chrome or Google plus or anything Google except the search engine and my gmail account.  I also don't know much at all about the Blogosphere, despite that fact that I am a blogger.  Or I am pretending to be a blogger.  All I know is that way back on January 26th, I challenged myself to fall in love with something every single day for a year and to write about it.  The pressure of having to post it via a blog was deliberate.  If someone was watching, I had to produce.  And I know that there are two or three of you out there who are watching.

I also know that some days, my blog posts kick ass.  And other days (most), they disappoint me (and probably you, too).  Yesterday's post, the one about Framing It, was not an ass-kicker.  But give me a break . . . I'm 296 posts in, and I'm running out of ideas.

Nonetheless, it upset me to see, via an email notification, that someone I don't know saw fit to comment on that post through a Google circle or something.  His comment was brief:  Who really cares.  (I put that period there; the commenter had no punctuation at the end of his comment.)

I am thin-skinned and the first to admit it.  I spent most of last evening reminding myself that I do not know this person and that he cannot hurt me.  I am still reminding myself about that.

But here's what's stuck in my craw.  What was his purpose?  It was a hurtful comment, and by that I mean that there could be no other intent but to hurt me, someone he does not know.  Is this what we do now?  Make cyber comments with the sole purpose of hurting someone?  I find it cowardly.

Aha!  But it is Day 297, and I have to fall in love!  So the gift from my unknown commenter is here, right now, in this post.  Who really cares?

The teacher who senses something amiss and pulls a student aside to ask what's wrong.  The check-out cashier who takes a minute to compliment a shopper on her clothes.  The commuter at the toll booth who pays the toll for the car behind her.  The guy from Lowes sent to measure for a new door, who offers to rehang the old one instead to save the consumer some money.  The state trooper who gives a warning instead of a ticket.  The family that works a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving.  The woman who raises money at street fairs to support an orphanage in Cambodia.  The kids who wash cars to donate money to the local animal shelter.

You get the idea.  There are people who post comments designed to hurt someone.  And then there are people who really care.  Which one are you?