Purging

History is rife with examples of purging. Most, if not all, of these purges were horribly misguided and the results were, well, bad, to put it mildly.

Examples? Well, let's go old school and head back to Adam and Eve. One could argue that their eviction from Eden was a purging, but at least that got the ball rolling on the creation of humanity.  Noah's flood? Yep, that was a purging that didn't end well for those who chose to ignore his warnings. Jump ahead to the Inquisition and we know how that story ended. Again, not well. How about the occupation of Native American lands and the horrific generational impact on the American Indian?  Nicely played, Manifest Destiny. And then there's the 20th and 21st century and all the awfulness we've perpetrated on one another in the name of ethnic cleansing/purging. Suffice to say, purging doesn't have a good history.

However, if there is a bright side to purging, it can be found in purging one's self of a bad habit. It can be found in purging one's house of mess and clutter. As I found yesterday, it can also be found in purging oneself of 'friends' on Facebook. As I've noted before here, if you looked at my array of 'friends' on the FB, you'd see a pretty eclectic group, representing a wide array of creeds, colors, beliefs, and opinions of people that have been a part of my life. That variety has made me a better person and made things more interesting. However, someone of those 'friends' had gone beyond opinion, even beyond bloviating, and had crossed the line into spewing vitriolic inanity. Yesterday, tore it. It was the day we celebrated the late Dr. Martin Luther King and the second inauguration of our President. The ensuing vitriol, albeit brief, made it clear that it was time. It was time to purge. I purged.

The number is not important. The lesson for me is what's important. Life's too short to let yourself get caught up in the crazy. My own life is just crazy enough, thank you. So I highly recommend a purge like this. It does a body good (sorry, milk advertisers). And if I've set you off one too many times with some inane remark of mine on the FB and you want to purge me, I get it. Purge away.

P.S. - Using Google to find images of the word 'purge' results in some regrettable imagery. You have been warned.