RMiddleton Monthly

I glanced at the time. It's 23:23 on June 30. Time to write my June update, I guess! I'll keep it brief because I'm not feeling well.

① My Social Media I have been writing a lot of meaningful reflection on Mastodon lately. The brevity of the 500 character limit frees me from perfectionist ambitions. It's a format designed for jots, idea notes. It's communication, if anyone cares to look, but it's not a commitment. If there's a miscommunication, and anyone asks for clarification — I might reply and sometimes conversations do happen — but the stakes feel so low. I like it. It's hard to explain with my pain-induced mind fog, but in one sense it's not disposable (whereas content put onto Meta-owned sites feels identical to throwing it away) because I can always link to it, search for it, and edit it, if I ever desire to refer, return, or revise past slapdash ideas. It feels perfect to me, like notes for future use with the added frisson that others can see it & comment if they like. It's low pressure. There's not even a commitment for those who wish to see the content (unlike some sites—I followed a recent referral to TikTok that I was prevented from viewing without joining). You can search for me within the fediverse @[email protected] or read my Mastodon posts at the public link mastodon.art/@RMiddleton. My Mastodon posts are also available as RSS or embedded on the home site of my humanist philosophy, humanissome.org. This month I added a short introduction to the fediverse to humanissome.org. The fediverse is instrumental in providing me a positive outlook on humanity. Social media does not only come in doomscroll.

② Other writings I'm not so great at putting ideas into words. In this blog post as example, To My Fellow Creatives & brain users, I have little confidence that my meaning gets across. That seems to happen with revelations. I am thinking that further adjustment in my thinking is required: I may have to trust readers more. The revelation in the above post is that I feel freed from greedily guarding my ideas. I feel more confident in my brain's ability to sort and recall. To me that's huge. I cannot know how it strikes others, so I think I ought to leave that part to you.

I've been developing my story. Planet B resides at a blog that is not dated. New posts are appended. The 2 most recent posts, written in the latter half of June, are School is For Life and Stories of Starling & Earthling. Nothing on the story blog is “ready for publication” yet there it is. I recently learned that the celebrated author with atrocious human values J. K. Rowling spent upwards of a decade developing her famous wizard books. That is inspiring. Sadly I never thought her books were well written so it might take me 2 decades! Or I can just put out whatever, as I'm doing now.

And here's an incomplete column on US politics, The left is actually doing pretty well, considering. I say the Left is doing well, considering, because dehumanization has the support of a centuries long, well-funded marketing campaign.

③ The Future I have not progressed as expected towards my dream of moving out of the country. I have barely filtered through my belongings, as can be seen in the linked video stream. When things aren't going well I find more success in altering my thinking than in trying to bifurcate myself into half taskmaster & half meekly obedient. I choose to say that I haven't progressed as expected (I considered saying as hoped) because as time passes I believe changing my expectations is what's necessary. In the linked video I say that I'm offering communication that's available to friends and relatives if they desire. While it's true I'm not communicating in conventional ways, I am not actually making connections, I am not reaching them where they are... I am communicating from where I am. These newsletters are another example. I don't expect anyone to read them, but they are available weekly, monthly, and quarterly. I have written to members of my family and to friends, in different ways. I am starting to see that the problem is me in a certain sense. I am thinking that me leaving home and saying take anything you want and do anything you want with the rest might be the best way. Because I am infirm. And turning to me to ask what do you want to do with this item over and over impedes progress. Me not being here would be the fastest way to empty my home of belongings, I think. So I am thinking that may be the best route forward.

By Rob Middleton who can be reached @[email protected] on Mastodon