The Giant Who Crushed My Spirit With Big Fancy Shoes

I'm sure every modern person with any kind of social network has taken that trip down memory lane, purposefully or not so much.  Today a friend of a friend commented on something and it took me down a bitter road of memories.  Nowadays everyone is offendable, deletable, expendable.  We can toss someone like an old hat on a whim or a grimace.  I'm not discounting your feelings...but before the internet was an every-day appliance it was a lot harder to read between the lines when you met someone.  People in authority stayed in authority and you could rarely get a glimpse behind the curtain.  (Especially people with something to hide!)  There wasn't a button you could click to see more about their hidden agendas, opinions or accomplishments.  This by no means infers you should trust someone because of what it says on their profile!  It's just that the mystery of who a person was made you a little more slow to approach.  Maybe a little more quick to assume their position in life was what it was.  I don't know why I spent time today thinking about some of these people who had a negative impact on my life.  Some people I unconsciously got away from before getting away from someone was a popular modern internet, relationship and self-help phenomenon.  

Thanks to modern technology one of those beyond-difficult people showed up in my living room today.  Sitting on my couch, minding my own business, someone who deeply hurt me with their callous personality and dastardly people skills was all of a sudden on my screen.  This was a person who I was supposed to show respect and allegiance to.  Ironically that person was friends with some of the other people I really had no interest in ever seeing again.  And guess what?  Those scary far-off (in memory and geography) places looked a lot smaller than they use to.  Those people looked a lot less exciting and important than they use to.  I don't see any reason to please them or impress them or be anything like them.  I'm not impressed with who they are and, from this distance of time, I can see who they truly are.  For maybe the first time that felt good.  Instead of feeling helpless or downtrodden...I felt a little bad for them.  I know, totally cliche', right?!  But true.  I could go down the next road...the one where they are totally lame and I am not.  ;)  But I'll just chalk it up to...God tells me to forgive and love them, anyway.  And I never have to go back to that place (or page!) again.