Since I can tell even from Message View that a couple of our resident attention vampires have reacted...uh...the way that attention vampires DO to my latest post, I shall expand upon it. This should be regarded as a form of compassion on my part, because it will give them something to obsess on and write about. This counts as compassion because it seems obvious that they don't seem to have anything *else* to write about, so I'm doing them a favor. :-)
I have a new rule of thumb when surfing the Net. If it's interesting to me I read it, and if it's either very interesting or funny I may even reply. If it's not interesting to me, or if the poster has established a long history of being uninteresting, I rarely bother to even read it, and try to never reply. What you are seeing in the posts piling on to my reply to Obba, and in the post of hers I replied to, is how some people REACT to being told that they're uninteresting. I suggest that this reaction is childish, and embarrassing. Get a life, people. And get over your selves. If I or others have suggested that you're uninteresting, either find someone else to chat with who does find you interesting, or try to actually become more interesting. Whining makes you less interesting, not more. Below I shall list a few ways that you or others could write that would be more interesting *to me*. Since you seem to care so much about that, you can either use the list to try to actually become a little more interesting yourselves, or you can ignore it -- and me -- and then hope for the best. Either way, it would enable you to stop this pitiful WHINING act that you've adopted: "Oh poor me...Barry won't focus on me and give me his undivided attention as I tell him over and over what I think is wrong with him. Oh, poor pitiful me...Barry won't compliment me or my writing the way I want him to. Oh poor, poor pitiful me...Barry won't argue with me, and give me the chance to "get" him or "show him up" in front of others, as I long to." BORING. Uninteresting. And kinda sad, especially for people who pose as spiritual seekers, with 20 to 40 years of sadhana under their belts. Here, just for fun, are a few things I find Not Interesting, and Interesting on Internet chat forums. Most won't even bother to read them, because they don't find *me* interesting enough to do so, and that is just FINE with me. I'm writing it for the few people who seem to obsess on me *when* I find them uninteresting, to explain to them WHY. NOT INTERESTING * Trying to emotionally blackmail someone into replying to them, claiming that the person will make them "feel bad" if they don't. Get a life, people. Three-year-old Maya is already starting to grow out of that behavior; isn't it about time you did? * When the above tactic fails, trying to insult or taunt the same person or persons into replying to you. That's dumb, and just puts you in the same ballpark as Willytex and Ravi. * Writers who get all caught up in the manic side of their bipolar mindset and write far more than they need to, as if the voice dictating it in their heads were either audible to others, or interesting to them. ( And yes, I may do that myself from time to time, but you can IGNORE it, and unlike the attention vampires, I won't complain at all if you do. :-) * People who talk, talk, talk about spiritual theory as if it were the same as spiritual experience. It isn't. * Folks who are trying to sell me something -- whether that they are "right" about something and I am "wrong," or that their preferred spiritual teacher or holy book is better than mine. I am not in the market for what you are selling. Go away and try to sell it to someone who is. * Arguing just for the sake of arguing. There are some here who seem to only "come alive" when they have been able to taunt or goad someone into a protracted argument with them. I regard them, and the arguments themselves, as a waste of my time and am never likely to get involved with them. * People who respond favorably to flattery. I am just not likely to ever have a good conversation with anyone that weak-minded. * Using flattery or other tricks to try to build consensus or to form cliques. This behavior is usually followed by trying to *aim* the cliques at the people they don't like, and that's tacky. * People who act as if being serious were a virtue. INTERESTING * People who understand that the mundane IS the spiritual, and that a celebration of the mundane IS more spiritual than any dry discussion of theory or philosophy. There is IMO more spirituality in Curtis describing what it's like to play music for people on the street or in Marek describing what it's like to surf a good break than there is in any 100 discussions of spiritual theory. * Folks who seem to have a life. As opposed to those who don't, based on what they write. If they can only write about others, and never seem to be able to write about their own lives and what is happening in them, I for one have to assume that nothing IS happening in them. * Those who listen to other posters enough to get a feeling for the things they find interesting, and then write to discuss those things. But discuss, not argue. For example, I may be interested in movies, but I am completely uninterested in arguing about them. Taste is subjective; you either like a movie or you don't. Being "right" doesn't enter into the picture. * Above all, I find people interesting who have learned over the years that neither their subjective experiences nor their subjective beliefs mean jack shit. They are nothing BUT subjective experiences and beliefs. Waving them about as if they were more makes you look as silly as a guy waving his dick around. Those who have gotten over this and who are comfortable just presenting their subjective experiences -- without overvaluing them or using them to claim that they're speaking from a superior position -- are sometimes interesting enough to chat with. * Funny. Funny overrides almost everything else.
