Mind Off-Leash: Social Media Posts during the Pandemic

As most of the world went into COVID-19 lockdown, Marjie was determined to keep her spirits up the same way she always has--by writing. She began to share her thoughts, covering the emotional and subjective gamut on her Facebook page. Among other things, she investigated the development of a young hawk family growing up in a nearby tree; told about the experience of raising monarch butterflies; shared observations about her mother's descent into dementia; and relayed stories about her life lived in Canada and the United States.She did not realize how many of her friends were looking for encouragement from her writing until they started to chat about the postings and encouraged her to publish them. This former journalist had been writing to the published page for decades, but she hadn't been writing on Facebook from that perspective. After lockdown was over, she decided to publish portions.Here are just a few examples of her whimsical writing style:"Today, little wavelets of sadness were flittering by like the departing breath of someone's soul. I can, today, feel the fear, the grief that is out there but not yet right here.""If I hang around a house long enough, I don't get cabin fever, I come down with the Property Brothers virus.""When I developed a fever and started to shiver uncontrollably, we both cracked up at how my voice was shaking. We were like kids on the loose with helium.""It was a slow golf game. I glanced over and saw His Collarship unknowingly trailing a clump of Spanish moss. I called over, 'Game's so slow you've got Spanish moss growing on you.'""Thou shalt not have your computer below your head. I already see my own double chin more often than I'd like. If I wanted to see everyone else's, I would have become a cosmetic surgeon. My favorite view is the guillotine, where the chair is lower than the table and all you see on screen is this talking head, the body, apparently, still back in bed."

--Marjie Aldom Smith

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