Someone stole my writing.
It’s happened once or twice before, but this time, it stung.
The “culprit” took one of my blog posts, changed the contact info and a few other personal details, and then posted it as a Facebook post. There was no attribution, no mention that they weren’t his own words. And it got shared, reposted, liked, and commented upon.
Why does it bother me? It was an 800-word throw-away post, a mental clog that had been irritating me enough that I finally flushed it out and posted it. What about it bothers me so much that I’m writing about it again?
I think it boils down to ego. I’m a big fan of both Deepak Chopra and Eckart Tolle. They talk about humans having two distinct sides. You might think of them as physical and spiritual, but I like their terms “local and non-local.”
If local consciousness is what we think of as our mind and body, then non-local consciousness is our spirit. The term non-local comes from physics and refers to something that exists without a definite location in time and space. Another way of saying that is that it exists at all places and times simultaneously.
Anyway, I know that I’m bothered by this locally. Non-locally, it doesn’t matter. There are no real consequences, and no opportunities won or lost, no food taken from my children’s mouths, so it doesn’t really matter. I’m trying to think of it that way and just let it go.
And, yes, I can hear you thinking it. Posting this blog is to assuage my ego, to appease it, and make me feel better. You’re right. Even though the audiences are different and the culprit won’t see this and know that I know, you’re right. And I’m okay with that.