Chamblee54

Get the facebook link. This is the first rule of writing about/deconstructing a meme. If you don’t get the link now, you will never find it later. Today’s toxic meme is “15 Sentences That Live In My Head Rent Free” by @jayyanginspires.
15S is a copied page, with the title and numbers draped in yellow magic marker. The text on the other side of the page bleeds inscrutably through. 15S is what you might call commodity wisdom. These are thoughts that sound good, until you think about them. A few might hold water, and none are out and out nonsense. Mostly, they are just thoughts … none of which will make your cold go away.
These helpful suggestions are courtesy of @Jayyanginspires “writing words, lifting weights, & building an internet business. | prev head of content to @noahkagan.” At least he doesn’t list his pronouns. Jay does provide a link to a website, “The Spark A quick dose of inspiration in your inbox, every Sunday.” When Lover of Books posted the meme, they included a link to Audible. The daisy chain of product promotion never stops.
“14. You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality.” This sentence is a good one to ponder. Authoritarian sophistry IS the old mentality. The rhetoric-based argument culture that gave us Donald J. Trump, the Gaza Genocide, and so much more. Manipulative use of language for competitive motivation. The challenge today is to know the difference between true wisdom, and clever sounding bullshit.
Pointing out hypocrisy is so boring. One response is to create art of this text, aka make lemonade out of lemons. I chose to create a haiku reduction. Highlight the parts that I want to keep, and turn the rest into digital rubble. As Alice Walker might say, “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
The phrase “God is in the details” applies here, much to chagrin of Yahweh worshipers. There are several steps to the process. If you make a mistake in one you will regret it later. Sometimes, you need to enlarge the image 1600%, and take out one pixel at a time. Just remember sentence nine.
9. “You can do anything, but not everything—focus.” The em-dash is so tacky. The secret is to not be distracted by —, or the uberclever phrasing. Just focus on the message. Focus is essential to getting anything done. This can be tough on a computer, with the digital circus a click away.
Getting back to the reduction, I need seventeen beats out of fifteen sentences. One way is to take one out of all fifteen, and find two more. Or I can just leave some of the sentences blank. There is a message in there if you look for it.
expensive advice · anxiety ill focus · understand mental Is advice expensive for the giver, or the taker? The motivation monger would say that advice is only expensive if you do not take it. Or if it causes anxiety, an ill focus of your precious life. Especially when you are careful to understand mental, while ignoring the danger of oversitting physical.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The images were taken July 30, 1966. The featured photograph: “Jimmy Carter with family members in their Plains, Georgia home during Carter’s first campaign for governor.” The kids probably belong to Billy Carter. Billy returned to Plains after serving in the Marine Corps as a private from 1955 to 1959. He married Sybil Spires, also of Plains, in 1955 and became the father of six children: Kim, Jana Kae, William “Buddy,” Marle, Mandy, and Earl.