Honoring Each Other

What makes a story worthy of 50 claps, a comment & a link

Doodle Puppy portrait by author

I’m a cranky old broad who fondly reminisces about two decades of the Golden Age of internet evolution from the clanking buzz of AOL to millions of ad free YouTube how tos. Please allow me two paragraphs of rant before the good stuff…

I once enjoyed all those friends on Facebook. Hell, I used to love everything about the interweb until manipulative corporate marketing slowed everything down with come ons that are slow to load, invade worthy content, blink in garish colors and slap me across the cortex with suspicion and annoyance. Even the Thesaurus does that now. Clicking anything invites a spam attack (not the link in this piece, though). Add to all that the creepy feeling of being invasively spied on when, after one curious Zillow search, my Fb feed vomits up multiple Sponsored moving van companies.

The only power of emotional self preservation left is to pay for advertising-free original content by human creators. Medium membership is the best. I send some money to Wikipedia every year, too. I fight to ignore the drek when gems are worth mining for. It’s exhausting. I punch a lot of little Xs. Not that it works, but because I’m cranky.

The Cure for Cranky

Besides laughing at all the follies and finding inspiration to mock them, it’s even more helpful to honor and support those who shine as guiding stars. I found an article worthy of accolade this morning. Its about an odorologist dog.

What makes Kelli Huggins’s piece sublime:

1. She turned an abhorrent, ongoing societal issue (Women are not respected / Women in STEM are not respected) into a heartbreakingly lovely observation.
2. Kelli illustrated it with her own watercolor sketches and cartoons that she created by hand.
3. It’s that extraordinarily rare kind of funny that becomes transcendent.
4. Not a single mean thing.
5. She honored her dog.
6. She laughed at herself.
7. No agenda other than self expression.

I’m cured… at least for today. Thank you Kelli for showing me that it is possible to be an artist, a scientist, a brilliant humorist and a woman all at the same time… to say nothing of the beagle.

Love, Mernie