Facebook Status Angst

One day several people tell me they like the things I post on my Facebook status.

At first I am delighted.

Then my delight morphs into a serious case of Facebook Status Angst.

I begin to imagine that the Facebook world waits in breathless anticipation of my daily status report and I feel pressured to live up to the expectations of my fans. I feel I have post something diabolically brilliant every day.

My mind goes blank. The only post I can think of is “I want a sandwich.”

It reminds me of the birthday card signing trauma where I get into thinking that because I am a writer, something more, something heart-warming, inspiring and original is expected of me. All I can ever think of  writing is “happy birthday.”

As I look at my blank Facebook status box, I began to wish I were cause person.” People who are passionately devoted to a cause never have a problem coming up with a Facebook status.  They just post links and comments about their cause, or causes.

While I admire people who are called to better the world through activism in various causes, I have never been a cause person. My contribution is to try to remember that everybody is part of our common humanity and to view them with respect and an open heart, regardless of whether I agree with what they’re doing or saying. I’ve managed to actually do this for moments at a time and maybe those moments reverberate throughout the world.

But I digress. This isn’t about my philosophy of life but about Facebook where I am still looking at a blank status box while my status fans wait breathlessly in the wings for another brilliant witticism.

Or so I imagine.

It occurs to me that I am being absolutely ridiculous. I laugh and post “human beings are most ridiculous species on the face of the earth.”