Facebook has a wonderful feature that I’ve used a few times. You can hide the input of a “friend” without actually dropping them, and they will never know it.
I did it last night to someone who is a friend only in the cyberworld. He had written a passionate little rant about how selfish we are to celebrate a Gold Medal win in hockey (ice hockey, for you Americans) and ignore the plight of people in Chile and Haiti. There must be a name for this type of person but I don’t know what it is. They attempt to bring in a sort of context that is inappropriate and unrealistic. It’s as if we should avoid smiling while there is suffering elsewhere in the world. If we stopped a celebration every time something bad happpened to thousands of people we would be a sour and quiet bunch of folks.
Sitting in our homes in Canada refusing to be jubilant about a patriotic event because of tragedy a world away, would not help anyone. It’s a ridiculous suggestion! I’m irked by it. Perhaps we can call these folks the “but wait” people. As soon as you look forward to something they pop up and say, but wait – what about the (insert devastating world event here). We make donations. We care! We feel empathy in the pits of our stomachs and are grateful that we’re healthy and safe. And we have every right to celebrate a happy event. “But wait” people are what the ‘hide’ feature is for.
Even within the virtual world, there are those who will cast a dark cloud over anything which doesn’t fit within their narrow view of life. What your virtual friend likely doesn’t know, is even after the news of the devastation in Chile, its athletes after what I’m sure was a heart wrenching decision remained at the Olympics until the closing ceremonies in the true spirit of what the games represent, endurance, courage and perseverance of its participants.