Society's Subtle Sickness

Conformity is so common in our society created from capitalism. People sell others out to get ahead in jobs or other things. Many are quick to judge their peers as something less than themselves. They can’t help it because it’s the only way they can feel superior.


When reality creeps out from underneath the breath of silent bystanders it may very well be ignored as the masses are listening to their IPods. Truth, though often sought after, isn’t always warm and inviting. It can be as coarse as a cactus and equally hard to swallow. Should it miss the reciprocator’s vocal chords on the way down she may be able to reply without the mess of coughing up blood. Then she'll return jagged words, equally hard to swallow, to the instigator. Both have their own version of what is real -what is their truth. Although each picture of reality may be entirely different from the other, every version should be considered with objectivity and scrutiny. Something in between will form a shape that resembles fact even if it’s ugly to look at.

Even if it’s not pretty to see it may be hard to look away. It's like staring at a horrible crash on the freeway - we’re rubber-necks - unable to resist urges to catch a glimpse of something hideous. We cause traffic to slow down and back up for miles. It's all affecting others. Maybe some day we’ll evolve to the point of speeding up to miss the sight of such tragedies and mind our own business.

Combining all forums of "Are You Serious?"

After having "Are You Serious?" set up on several different hosts it appears that one host has established more membership than all the others. The host is webs.com and here's the link to "Are You Serious?" on that host. I encourage all my members on this Yuku hosted site to go to the link I provided and join that hosts version of our group. I would like to eliminate all the unnecessary forums and have only one "Are You Serious?" which was determined to be the best version according to which forum the members chose to join. In other words, the forum decided upon was decided by our members. Members viewed all forums and joined the forum which they liked best.

Thank you for being a part of this group. Every single member is an important piece to the whole. I value all of your membership and, especially, your participation in the group. Please join us at webs.com.

Thank you for your help with maintaining high membership and quality members. I appreciate all of you more than you know. Also, I encourage all of you who follow us over to webs.com to actively participate in the group either by reading other's work and providing feedback or by posting your own work. All activity is necessary for the group to thrive and recruit new members. The more members we have participating the more membership will grow and flourish.

A group with thriving membership offers so much to each member in so many ways. If a member is promoting his or her work or published books it offers a high volume of exposure for that writer. If a member is trying to better their skill as a writer it offers multiply members providing them with valuable feedback. If a member enjoys reading new work it allows that member to read various styles and subject matter that they would otherwise miss. It, also, allows the reading members a chance to help a writer improve their writing ability by that member providing feedback/critique to the writer. This is what a writing group is all about and I've been privileged in the past by being a part of so many thriving writing groups prior to MSN's removal of their groups in 2008. I have learned so much as a writer of prose, opinion, and poetry by being a part of several writing groups who had a thriving membership coupled with a high volume of activity from a diverse crowd of people.

Thanks, again, for all that you do to make "Are You Serious?" grow and prosper. We do not make money by running a writing group but we do help each other, as well as ourselves, grow as writers.