PLEASE Don't Tell Shoe!

Well, boys and girls, it was exactly one year ago today that Cheaper Than Therapy was launched into cyber-space! I cannot think of a more appropriate time to write my final post to this silly little experiment.

We've covered a lot of ground in the prior 52 posts. I got an initial ego boost as I thought this thing was spanning the globe! I had to be educated as to the "misinformation" that comes from the world wide web and it was a humbling experience. These things called "BOTS" crawl around the information super-highway and "ping" everything in their path. And they do it from servers all over the globe. And they greatly inflate the statistics page that Blogger provides.

Consequently, I have not had "Page Views" from dozens of countries and amassed the World Wide following that I thought. Best guesstimates are somewhere around 5,000 legitimate page views, including 2 or 3 foreign countries. My "tens" of fans, though, have been faithful and supportive and it has been an overall positive experience.

Most of you were in dire need of the free education I've provided you over the past year. In the end, however, this whole thing might just have been about two posts. "Has It Really Been Thirty Years?" stands out clearly in my mind. And of course, "Does Anybody Want a PB & J?" was by FAR my favorite and most heart-felt entry.

I need to give a shout out to Stainless, Oil Can, The Denton Yogi, and of course, Shoe for conversations that have sparked ideas and inspired entries over the past year. In my attempts to teach them (HA!), several posts evolved from those  little chats.

Now, I've got to say one of the hardest things I've ever had to say. It pains me greatly to post on the World Wide Web the most important thing I've learned in the past year. SHOE WAS RIGHT!

You may or may not remember Shoe's opinions about Facebook. Shoe stands firm in his conviction that he doesn't do Facebook because, in his words, "I'm a grown-A** man!" It is with the most humble and contrite heart that I now confess that he is, indeed, correct in his assessment.

I could not care ANY less about your experience on Facebook. The following is true for me:

1) Facebook is by FAR the biggest TIME-WASTE in my life. This is no doubt due to this silly smart phone that accompanies me everywhere I go. It's just too tempting to pull it up and I do it way too much...in meetings, at meals, in front of the TV, and driving down the road. This MUST stop.

2) Facebook is like pouring gas on the fire of my self-centeredness! I explained that early on in "Self Centered--You Have No Idea." My check-ins, my Nike run posts, my opinions....my, my, my, my, my! The whole idea about CTT was that I'm sick and tired of ME! Yet, Facebook condones and encourages that ME behavior.

3) Facebook encourages and exacerbates my growing frustration with you. You are supposed to unwaveringly and whole-heartedly LOVE everything I say and do. But instead, some of you write several paragraphs on MY Timeline and use phrases like "respectfully disagree." WHAT? Are you kidding me? Then, of course, a few of you are guilty of FWI (Facebooking While Intoxicated). I am embarrassed for you and, hopefully, with you.

4) Sadly, most of you just don't get Facebook. One or two of you do. And your posts crack me up and give me great joy. The rest of you take yourselves so #### seriously, that when I throw out things for sheer "shock value," you resort to name calling and disdain. "Trimming the Friends' List" is for pure shock value. I have NOT unfollowed everybody on my list! Good grief! Can you really not see that? I just thought I was self-centered! Your responses make me look like an amateur at self-centered obsession!

I have not disallowed any comments to this blog. I have reserved "moderation rights." But everything that has come in has been posted. Since it's obviously difficult to figure out how to comment in Blogger, most of you comment on my Timeline. I have not deleted any of them. But I have sat in amazement and awe at what some of you have felt the "need" to share. Like I've said before, it's free to set these things up. Knock yourself out! I've never understood your compulsion to write YOUR blog on MY Timeline.

I am most humbled by the Private Messages that come in weekly to the posts. You are the ones that inspired me to continue, because you wanted to discuss some of these things without trying to prove how smart you are in a public forum. Your lack of self-centeredness is a great example to me and I truly envy your humble hearts.

The only way my tens of readers see this is through my Timeline link. So, I will keep Facebook up through Monday or Tuesday and then deactivate for the last time.

In the end, I can only blame myself for not being able to handle this. It's really not your fault! Some of you exasperate me. But you were doing that way before CTT, and will continue to that in the future until I can come to grips with that silly cliche, "Live and Let Live."

So, I'm throwing in with Shoe and becoming a grown-a** man! What a joke! We're not grown-a** men. We're both too self-centered and immature to handle this "new" social media craze!

I just hope that I will continue run and occasionally go to the gym. I'm not even sure a workout counts if I can't announce it to the world!

May God Bless You All!