1Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help." 2Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. 3In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD. 4And Abel also presented [an offering — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast. 6Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast? 7If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it." 8Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
~Genesis 4:1-8
I am doing what I love... Telling and performing stories on social media as a new form of building artistry, creatively on major platforms with pre-defined business goals. I am "roleplaying" or RPing characters in a genre I love, Star Wars, in attempt to uplift non-canon to canon.What is so wrong with that? I have just been told I "mislead people" on my account. Although the profiles clearly say what it is I am doing, since people do not read what is not "eye catching" to them, they will not try. As a marketing ploy, I can make flashy signs, but then I will be called a "spammer". Who makes up these rules is beyond me. But rumors travel like wildfire with no editing or journalistic deference. The wave of the future.
The key is, do not respond. Refrain from engagement. It is what I call, the "NO Tire Kickers" rule. Give the "potential buyer" ~25 maximum engagements or lines of text, if they are serious about buying, they will, if not, go on to the next "buyer" and not waste valuable marketing resources on anyone unwilling to close the deal. The point is, you must move your product and wasting lines of Facebook Status or Tweets on someone only meant to argue with you using logic fallacies is a waste of valuable time. Ignore, unfollow or block... That is the only recourse.
Why? Because I fell into the trap. Greed was my problem. I assessed greater potential into someone else that reaching out to a potential buyer who actually offers more loyalty and promise to the nature of my business and my goals. I wasted valuable marketing resources. And in these tough economic times, every minute counts.
So why bring up Cain and Abel?
The Biblical story is roughly about two brothers, older vs younger, where Cain the older kills his brother Abel the younger out of jealousy because Abel's offering to God was more favored.
It got me thinking. What was the difference between the offerings? One was the bountiful harvest from Cain, and the other was the flock, animal and living gift from Abel. God liked the flock, animal and living gift more. Why?
The scholars have listed every reason why. May I suggest and revelation I had. It is about career and work. The jobs situation is horrific right now in the United States. Many people are out of work, desperately seeking employment. Some have given up searching. I am one of those. Hence, I choose not to seek unemployment benefits because, I know the kind of job that I am qualified to do, I never want to go back there and do it, ever again. It is one thing is I had no education to speak on this, but I have a doctorate in Molecular Genetics, published scientific papers in scientific journals. Can discuss hardcore science with the best and the brightest minds and I have been reduced to playing around on social media?
BUT I AM LOVING MY LIFE!!! I SPEND HOURS HONING IN ON MY CRAFT!!! SOMETIMES I DO NOT GET TO BED UNTIL MORNING, AND MANY TIMES I STAY UP ALL DAY AND NIGHT!
Healthwise, that is not good, so I balance some of it. One goal is to slow it down a bit and ease up on the "all nighters". But ideas of roleplaying Star Wars, telling stories and performing them rush into mind and I have opened a flood gate! It will not close. My "geekitude" and "nerdgasms" explode! In the first time in my life, in a long time, I feel happy, complete and content...
And I give away my work to anyone who asks... I do this without making money because I love it so much. I do not know what it is or why it is like that, but I do know I have tapped into a "creative center" that has been atrophied for too long. If my fandom or fangirl out of control? Possibly! Do I really think I have a chance to make a non-canon Star Wars fan fiction into the canon through social media? Yes, I can...If I do not try, I have already failed. Everything else in my life I have done because I tried and if I fail at this, I still succeed because well, I am having fun even though I face failures--teachable moments and learning opportunities.
THAT thinking is a LONG WAYS AWAY from when I was a hardcore scientist: when I failed, I was miserable. I hated work. I hated people at work. I gained 20 pounds. My skin broke out in pustules. My hair was falling out. I was ugly physically and personality wise. I hated myself. I wanted to die. I love science to this day. I think good scientists are awesome. I spent a large portion of my teens to my thirties doing science and I am not bad at it. But the "offering" I was making to honor myself and "God" if you will, was BAD!
So this is my small, uneducated understanding of the Cain and Abel story, allegorically: When you work, you may do a good job and is sounds really well, but if you are not happy with it and hate doing it, you are a miserable person and it comes out in your work and your boss, superiors, supervisors and co-workers see that... You are like Cain...
Then you see young upstart, happy-go-lucky, have not a care in the world Abel, whose "workmanship" just comes naturally and every job s/he does is lauded and appraised because even during "failures", s/he learns from the mistakes and keeps going.
What happens to you, Cain, is you get jealous of happy Abel and you want nothing but to destroy Abel's chances of being successful at their career. You, Cain, dishonor yourself by tearing down Abel's creative approach to being "good steward" and provide a living offering to this life. A living offering that is in perpetuity--that is called "knowledge and education".
I was Cain in science. I did not share my data. I was paranoid that made me crazier until something inside me said "STOP" this is NOT who I want to be.
Then I met Abel, sometime in 2009, and while I was being lambasted for moving the wrong way, saying the wrong stuff, cyberbullied mercilessly, I am STILL having fun doing it.
I think I suppressed my creativity in High School for fear of being a starving artist. But look at me now? I am a highly educated unemployed PhD and guess what, I might become that starving artist, but I am living my life in content!
How far would I have gotten or would I have said the same thing about my life now if I became that artist? Or if I kept that creative edge up like I was suppose to?
My life's path is the way is suppose to be going...And I trust the process more...
If anyone reading this is out of work, unemployed and frustrated: Remember, being that angry for what it was is not going to get you where you need to go. Find the artistry to creatively tackle your problems whatever they may be to honor your "good workmanship" that give the living gift for all...
Peace and blessings!
To learn more about telling stories on social media, visit us at the Isle Sanctuary Artistic Division!
