Wake-up Call

Before 2008 I had never 'blogged' or signed up to 'chat' on any 'forum'. My then literary agent suggested that 'blogging' and 'chatting' with (total) strangers on fora were good marketing strategies for my books. I am not sure that this is right  and, moreover, one gets sucked in to engaging and sustaining virtual conversations with a high percentage of trolls and morons. There are better things to do with one's time:

As Voltaire has Candide tell us: ''Il faut cultiver le jardin'' - which may be taken literally or as an encouragement to look to one's own life, family and friends, before engaging with strangers.

In the 1st century AD the Roman poet Martial tells us, in an Epigram:

''toga rara mens quieta'' which advice (- roughly - set city clothes and pursuits aside and keep a tranquil mind) I have already taken to heart (despite the ironic subject matter of some of my books!).

- And then we have Thackeray's ending of Vanity Fair:

''Ah vanitas vanitatum which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire or, having it, is satisfied? Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for the play is played out.''

- But, as a matter of fact, I am quite satisfied and content - and I am sure that is because I have discovered the secret of  ceasing to seek things that I may not have and concluding, with resignation, that I was not meant to have them.

Anyway, today I resolved to post a piece in here at least once a week and to forsake all fora (rather than individuals' blogs), wherein dwells a kind of toxicity of the spirit as well as a lot of useless 'chat' between complete strangers; most of whom are either: sad, lonely sods (sometimes bordering on personality disorder) or people with some agenda and self-interest to promote; folks trying to sell something to the suckers out there who have more money than sense.

Not interested.