Lost and Commented Upon

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take you on a short journey through my thought process for you to connect this stuff. Sorry. I know that the mind-meld with a monkey is the sort of thing most folks would avoid.

First off, one of my favorite new online reads is The Daily Beast. It is a Tina Brown publication and a conglomeration of blogs and news items and original pieces commenting on pretty much everything. Tonight I saw a video clip of Wolf Blitzer dancing with Ellen, read about how the economic crisis is killing the "porn boob" business, read about the phenomena of fake bake, and more.

Second, over the past year, I've seen several of my favorite bloggers either ruminate over vicious commenters or close up shop altogether. It seems that there is a whole class of people out there who believe that they have the right to impose their beliefs, issues, and nastiness on others because they can hide behind the internet. You humans like to thump your chests and tout the ethos of individuality and personal freedoms . . . but you don't want anyone else to exercise their own if it clashes with you this exact moment.

Lastly, these two things have come crashing together in an ongoing bit in The Daily Beast . . . a diary of sorts, The Bag Lady Papers. The Bag Lady Papers chronicles one woman's experience in losing everything she had in the Madoff scandal. Although she comes from a background that most of us could not relate to . . . she has worked hard during her life, had several lucky breaks, and is, in my opinion, a fairly sympathetic character. She has worked since she was 16 years old. Her feminist leanings meant that rather than take money from her ex-husband, she worked three jobs to support herself and her child . . . and slept on the floor so he could have a bedroom. She was able to use her mind and her talents and her work ethic to make a comfortable living for herself. She indulged in luxuries . . . a house keeper, nice jewelry, good food, generosity to friends. She was one of the women who created the Pink Ribbon for Breast Cancer campaign.

And, she invested with Madoff because well educated business people told her that he was good. She felt that she was being conservative with her money . . . opting for steady growth rather than overnight amazing wealth. And, she lost it all.

The Bag Lady Papers are her personal diary of how she is reacting to losing her investments. She has to let go of her housekeeper. She has to make time in her schedule for those mundane tasks that take up so much time . . . like ironing and cleaning. She is discovering that going less than first class isn't really all that bad. She discovers that Hampton Inns are clean and neat and comfy and a good bargain. She learns the joys of Popeyes Chicken (one of my faves).

But, the commenters are often absolutely inhumane with their judgement of her. She is writing of her own personal experiences, her own journey. I'm not sure why people aren't any better at accepting each other for the individuals we all work so hard to become. I'm not sure what human or christian spirit leads people to heap nastiness on top of someone who is already struggling. Surely, that's really bad karma in the making.