Saturday, August 31, 2013

T. H. I. N. K.

Way back in 2011 I posted the photo (below) of me taken in my senior year along with a poem I came across in a box of old high school memorabilia.


Today as I was sifting through old posts' on La Bella Vie I came across a disturbing comment in that particular post with a time stamp of June 8th, 2012.

The poem in the post had been written on a very yellowed with age piece of binder paper which was more than likely pulled out of my "Pee-Chee" folder we carried around back in 1975. 
The handwriting in my own script, was all cute and flowing with lots of little curlicues. It looked exactly like what a 17 year old girls' penmanship would look like. But truthfully I really had no recollection as to where those written words came from on the little yellow piece of paper.

Did I write them in English lit. class or maybe my writing and poetry class, did I hear it in a song or read them in a book? I didn't really know or recall, but since it was in my own hand I was sure I had to have written it and it was never a priority to research it, it was just five lines from a young girls' past.

The poem itself also looked exactly like what a 17 year old girl might write in high school in 1975. It was moody and emotional and could have easily been written either before, during or after some "traumatic break-up" with whatever high school jock I was dating at the time.
As time marched on, that little piece of paper was tucked away in my little box of memories for safe keeping. 
Fast forward to 2011 when I came across that little piece of paper again with that poem during a very tumultuous time in my life and posted it along with the picture [above] never thinking twice about its origin, just that it seemed as appropriate that day as it did thirty six years prior.

Today as I was sifting through comments a person by the name of "Anonymous" (I'm confident I know who "Anonymous" is) left a comment informing me the poem was from the song, "Conversation Love song" by Roberta Flack. Then "Anonymous" proceeded to post the full lyrics and the copyright date of 1973. The comment appeared as if "Anonymous" was accusing me of stealing the words when in reality, a 17 year old girl jotted down something that a 55 year old women had no recollection as to where it came from!

So the whole point of this post is for when "Anonymous" does go trolling and lurking again (and she will) she will see what my intent was which was not stealing! For the record anything I have ever posted, a photo, a poem, a song lyric, anything that belongs to someone else or is copyrighted material, I have always given credit for in my blog.

Thankfully because of my own moral compass, I would never, ever take credit for another person's work knowingly.
Oh and just for the record, if I have something to say or a point to make, I have the courage to use my given name and not hide behind a fictitious name like "Anonymous". 

I still have that little yellowed with age piece of paper written by a teenage girl from 38 years ago with those few lines of what I now know to be song lyrics. 
But as of today that post has been omitted. Not because of a mean-spirited person that cowardly goes by the name "Anonymous" but because my life today is so richly blessed in a way I could never have imagined and there is no need to have dark shadows lingering where there is now lightness and joy...

I'll end this by simply leaving you with something a dear friend shared with me. It's an Acronym that we could all be reminded of;

T. H. I. N. K. is it Thoughtful or Truth, is it Helpful, is it Inspiring, is it Necessary, is it Kind?