Greg Vandagriff

I’m not generally a guy that’s particularly into poetry. Whether this comes from having to read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” every Christmas Eve for the past billion years or some other deep-seated psychological trauma, I don’t know. That being said, I remembered hearing a poem while serving in Atlanta that really resonated with me. I recently came across it again; as it is famous, you’ve likely read it before. Nevertheless, I give you “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903)

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

———-

I love this poem. It inspires and strengthens me. Finally, a quote from Elbert Hubbard:

“God will not look over you for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars.”

Until next time!

So I’m going to confess something silly: I keep an eye on my number of facebook friends. I know it really doesn’t mean anything, but I think it’s fun to monitor (just like your credit score). That is, it’s fun to monitor except when one encounters the phenomenon of what I refer to as “friendrot”.

What is friendrot? Friendrot is when you notice a gradual decline in your number of facebook friends. Now for many people, this isn’t a big deal, but I freely admit that I get paranoid and wonder WHO removed me from their friendlist. I typically will search my list of friends frantically to see if I can catch who’s missing, but I never seem to be able to figure out who it is. You’d think it’d be the people that you don’t really know and wonder why you have on your friend list, but NooOOoOo… that useless trash is content to remain, cluttering the view of the rest of your social network (until you delete them).

While I am aware that my glittering social commentary and magnetic personality will go largely unnoticed by the public as a whole, I was never aware that people would actually REMOVE me as a friend!

Many aspects of life are disturbing; being able to visibly observe a decline in your social influence is one of them.

The answer, of course, is to work like a madman to find more people that you know and add them to your friendlist in a frenzied attempt to counteract the diabolic decaying influence of friendrot.

Which is exactly what I’m doing.