At the Risk of Repeating Myself!
Last I looked, I had published some 2,600+ posts in the course of the last almost-nine years, here in our lovely community. If we extend that backwards to my feeble beginnings in the blogosphere of 1998, that number likely rises to well over 10,000 publications... probably closer to 20,000.
So, what's my point, here?
Well, we talk a lot about the "evils" of copying, and of "content recycling," but I honestly can't always remember whether or not I have written about certain topics (and stories) previously. And I can't believe we'd actually be expected to!
After all, I'm not going to keep an index file or flowchart of everything I've written.
Besides, isn't there an old truism (generally attributed to Mark Twain) that there are no such things as completely new or original ideas in the world.
That said, I do end up giving this particular train of thought some time, and occasionally I find myself scrolling backwards through my posts to see whether or not I commented on something... and by the time I have wasted about an hour doing that (and getting sidetracked into reading OTHER people's posts) the desire to even write anything has pretty much been extinguished.
Besides, people on Hive repeat themselves all the time. For example, if you write a weekly post about "Your Hive Goals," aren't you just regurgitating the same thing, over and over?
Which brings me to something that often weighs heavy on my mind: Why are so many people obsessed with being AGAINST things? Why not be PRO their opposite, instead?
Yes, I realize it's a fairly common human attribute to define what we claim to "want" by endlessly pointing out all the things we don't want. But still...
There's a piece of popular lore about the late Mother Teresa, who — allegedly — was once asked to attend an Anti-war rally. The organizers were saddened when she didn't make an appearance, and much later asked her why she didn't come to support their cause.
Her response was something along the lines of "As soon as you organize a PRO-peace rally, I promise you I'll attend!"
What bought this whole thing to mind was someone on a writer's forum asking me whether I was opposed to AI and AI generated content... but rather than answering their question directly, I allowed as how I am in favor of human created content.
It strikes me that we often spend so much time opposing things that we forget to give time to those things we are in favor of.
I'm sure there are those who would argue that they are "the same thing" but — at least to me — they feel energeticaly different. Favoring something is a positive emotion while opposing things tends to be negative.
Of course, I'm not so naive as to believe that there isn't a time and place for opposition to something dramatically wrong... but in most everyday life situations we start with something much closer to ambivalence.
Still, I think it behooves us to at least make an effort to be in favor of things we love, rather than just rail on and on against things we don't like.
Mmmm'kay?
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!
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Created at 2025.07.31 15:58 PDT
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I think a lot of this is due to how much easier it is to find a group in agreement with an anti-such-and-such position. For example, many people can be anti-Trump, but they splinter into pro-Democrat, pro-other-Republicans, pro-libertarian, pro-socialism, etc. when asked why they oppose Trump.
Good point. The "sheep effect" often comes into play. People are often more concerned with "being part of" a group, rather than holding fast to their own authentic beliefs. Which can be challenging, if those beliefs happen to be an amalgam of the best of both conservative and liberal ideals.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! this is a post everyone should read more then once!!!
Snooooooook! Maybe they should, but I doubt they will... still, we can but dream, right?
It’s almost impossible to avoid repeating ourselves, especially when our writing reflects ongoing thoughts, passions or life patterns. That doesn't make the message any less meaningful. Weekly updates gardening logs, reflections or goal posts often touch on familiar ground and that’s okay. It’s part of how we stay connected with each other.
It is true... we tend to "cluster" around our interests and hobbies, and what have you. Which suggests that repetition isn't really the problem if you're targeting your interest group... it's just those who don't actually care much about what you said who step up and say "You've already written that! Who cares?"