The Lance in all of us

Much to my amazement I watched the 1st part of the 2 part interview that Lance Armstrong did with Oprah Winfrey. There was a reason that I sacrificed watching my reality shows for this. To be honest, I couldn’t really care less whether Lance had doped or not. I’m not really a cycling enthusiast and outside of the fact that he was the face of the yellow wristband, and had been through the viciousness called cancer I had never paid too much attention to the goings-on in his life mine kept me busy enough. I simply wanted to understand the story behind the story. I was curious about 2 things – why had he held on to the lie for so long and why was he coming out to tell the truth now? I passively listened to his admission of many of the facts that we’d already heard about but intently honed in on the screen as he spoke about why he lied and what it felt like to be living a lie. I’m not in the business of playing the guessing game at what really lies in the heart of man so it is not my place to determine whether or not his admission was borne out of the selfishness to garner sympathy or whether it was good old altruism in motion. I am in the business of saying how I feel however and I will say I felt a deep compassion for him as the unravelling of Lance Armstrong continued. He talked about how the same drive and determination to beat cancer also meandered its way into beating other competitors (never mind for now that he was doping before the illness), how as he built this lie it became his truth, how he didn’t feel he was cheating by doping and when finally he was almost ousted he figured that the story had been so perfect that he wanted to keep it that way. I realized then that I wasn’t watching just Lance Armstrong but I was watching any one that claims to be human. How often do we often start up with insecurities that cause us to reject the notion of overcoming and instead illuminate only the weaknesses in us whilst using our strengths in  the most vile and corrupt ways. We build these stories that we want the world to see about our families, finances, careers, lifestyles; stories about us that seem too good to be true because they are. We then perpetuate this stench by betraying our inner man as well as others in this selfish and futile attempt to ensure that this story becomes oh so real. As Mr Armstrong alluded to he is deeply flawed- and might I add just like the rest of us. I encourage you today to embrace your flaws, channel your strengths wisely, uncover the inner man and listen to him knowing that the story that you tell may not be picture perfect but in the end gives you peace.

The secrets and hidden treasures of Facebook

Ok, so I admit I am a people watcher. Maybe there’s something in my personality or perhaps formed by my environment or both, but I enjoy observing how people engage and interact with one another. I have always been interested in people and how their minds work so not sure how I ended up as a bean counter, but back to people watching. Facebook has given me yet another platform to do this. There have been studies on the effect of social media such as Facebook on social capital. Some have concluded that Facebook users that frequently post messages and/or pictures about themselves are narcissistic, others discuss the benefits that accrue to a person’s state of well-being almost as though it is directly proportional to the number of electronic friends they have. While I agree with elements of both conclusions and all else in between, I say enough already to all these studies – these academics they think they can use intellect to explain human behaviour? Let my Facebook users be- How else can people get everyone to know all the mundane details of their lives, or give everyone the opportunity to stalk them by letting all know where they’ve "checked" into? I have to admit I thought nothing of this “check in” phenomenon when I first saw it because I’m not that tech savvy so I assumed somehow Facebook knew this automatically (please do not laugh). I was miffed when I was enlightened that a person had to go through certain steps to take a few precious minutes of their time to click some buttons and give permission to the world to announce to the world their location at a point in time. Speaking of which how come no one’s ever checked into court, or work, or the grocery store, or the mechanic’s workshop? Never mind I was just thinking out loud. I guess the people I meet in these places are just not Facebook users or maybe they don’t live the life that I do. Watching people show their expensive cars and all aspects of luxurious living reminds me of my reality shows. Sometimes I really wisg facebook also had the icons "idc" (I don't care) or better yet "dgad" (don't give a damn) so I could click as many times as I've thought it. For the ones that don’t know I wear the unofficial runner up (only because I don’t have enough time) crown as the undisputed queen of watching reality shows. The reality shows just like many FB users only showcase what they want you to see and develop this story that they know is bound to be entertaining and yet is so far from reality. I am thoroughly entertained. I have found many treasures on Facebook; I experienced music and shared useful information with many, shared my blog, discovered new businesses, reconnected with old friends, seen pictures of friends and family that I am unable to meet up with often enough. So in 2013 I encourage all Facebook friends and users to keep up the great work and do whatever floats their boat on a river that’s full with water from washing only very clean laundry in public, so I can remain entertained and yet again have another platform to people watch and escape into other people’s “realities”