I only post vanities of life, my travels, food and walks

No matter how much experience we have been through in our lives, from time to time we are still surprised at the turn of some events, needless to say, that even if we think hard, we may not find any answers. 

Recently, I was meeting a friend of many years, as we live in different countries. Our rare face-to-face meetings are quite intense, filled with many joyful chitchats, catching up and lots of laughter, and so it was during our latest meeting.

After many hours of a delightful encounter, I was being dropped off at my place of stay.  As she was driving and five minutes before I left her car, my friend asked me why I was not posting on my social media accounts anything about a cause that is now trending on  social media. A cause that she was strongly supporting. 

Very calmly, I told her that as you see I only post vanities of life, my travels, food and walks in nature. However, if  I wanted to post any other item, it had to be coming out of my own will.

By now,  we were almost approaching the dropping point when I told her that I do respect anyone who is taking a step in the path of peacemaking. My friend said one more sentence and nothing else after that. She said: “I think whoever doesn’t support this cause is not human.”

After thanking her for the evening and a somewhat cold goodbye from her, I left the car. Then 10 minutes later, I decided to send her a thank you message.

When I saw that the message was not going through, I checked my Instagram account where she had just posted a lovely picture of us at dinner, including a warm message. Neither the post  nor  the account of my friend was there.  The reality then sunk in, my friend had just blocked me in every way possible. 

Of course, after the initial shock, the piles of experience that I had accumulated kicked in, and I analysed the situation. I needed not blame myself for what happened. I know that one of the main advantages of being a human being is free will. Coercing and forcing people to choose a direction of thought that is not theirs, is simply unacceptable. 

I also wondered about how selective we have become in our choices. Selective for personal reasons, we leave many atrocities and focus on one. The one that will bring us more followers, the one where we will be recognised as heroes and champions of democracy. 

Let me see someone posting about the plight of the people in Sudan, nearly 10 million internally displaced, famine and death awaiting millions of Sudanese. This is considered one of the largest in African history, but then, there is no fame posting about that. 

My dear friend will find out one day that in a hasty moment, she boycotted a part of herself.