At this point in time, I’ve been harassed for my novel, exactly ten times. In full disclosure, I’ve received much much more of a positive response — so much more that I have lost count. But it has been legion and for that I am grateful.
Just the other day someone online thanked me for my work, and I was filled by that statement of gratitude. But we are wired to the negative, and that is perhaps why I remember the exact number of harassments I have received.
Of course, it was expected that I would be told that I would be going to hell, etc., ad nauseam, and I did expect to upset a few people. After all, I did write a book on a controversial topic. But when you think about it — THEY is completely plausible. There must have been strong women, people of different genders and sexual orientations in biblical times. I just imagined how they survived and lived their lives.
I do a lot on Twitter and the TENTH time that I was harassed, the harassment contained such bad language that Twitter censored it. So after I was done laughing — I considered what the harasser most likely said.
Then it brought to mind the Buddhist philosophy of wishing everyone well. It would be easy to dismiss this as a classic case of “Twinkle, twinkle little star, what you say is what you are.” It wasn’t an easy thing to do . It is more natural to engage in negative energy and return the harasser’s comments — but in this case I don’t know what they were.
If you wish someone true happiness, chances are that people won’t have to harass others to feel good about themselves. And so I breathe in and out and wish everyone — including the harasser with the censored comments — the roots of true happiness.
