With Strange Fire

Burn Those Ships!

Tamarindo Beach Costa Rica January 2022

I haven’t been around since I set up the site. First I had to make an emergency trip to my family of origin followed by health issues. So busy. My apologies.

One of the Christian songs that has meant the most to me over the past few years is one by For King & Country “Burn the Ships” It’s a song that does not mention God, or Jesus, or even reference Christianity at all much less a certain flavor of faith. It’s about surviving bad things, by picking your rear end up and walking away from troubles. Light a match, leave the post, burn the ship, as the lyrics read.

I’ve been through so much in my life, I’m still going through so much involving my family of origin in Louisiana that is fearful and uncertain. But whenever I hear this song I know I don’t have to fear the unknown. I can literally get up out of the dust and walk myself to anywhere I want.

A big part of that walking away is realizing some years ago that the opinions of others of me are not any of my business. Not at all. I’ve mostly tried to keep to that. One of the things I did with social media after stopping writing for “No Longer Quivering” on Patheos was privatize my Facebook account and switch out my legal name for a pseudonym on all other social media.

Unfortunately the run up to publishing my book involves me switching back to my legal name. In tromps the usual suspects to add to my Jerks 4 Jesus site. I don’t suffer fools very well. Just part of being prominent in any very small way online and having a vagina.

At the same time I have someone in my real life trying to drag me into a street fight on social media. They do not understand their opinion of me matters not in the slightest to me. I stopped interacting with them months ago after I caught them behaving very badly. So they’ve moaned on social media, and defenders have rushed in to tell them how wonderful they are while all tagging me.

The funniest part of this mess is that this person has decided all of this on a week when I’m struggling with my body, taking offense at my own personal boundaries that have nothing to do with them. Just Mr. Asthma again. I haven’t done anything but take meds and rest.

It’s all been a great reminder that to keep doing that thing from a Jimmy Buffett song – Breathe in, breathe out, move on. I am trying to hard to do that right now, and it’s so hard with the bodily conniptions and others thinking their opinion of me is so important.

The dogs bark but the caravan moves on.