••• The International Writers Magazine - Editorial

Editorial: August 2023 • Sam North

People are very sensitive in these mentally stressed times. I got an ‘I don’t want to be friends with you anymore as you weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about my new colour scheme.’  At first I was kind of surprised that a casual friendship of three years could be discarded so easily, but then, of course I apologised. (This was not considered good enough.)

I’m not very good at gushing enthusiastically about a painted room, although I recognise a lot of work went into scraping and painting. Nevertheless, a friendship lost for what is deemed a slight is perhaps a definition of how people are now used to being ‘liked’ for anything they do. Posting a photo of your fruity breakfast on Insta must collect a thousand likes or it’s a failure, ditto having to ‘like’ photos of a sister’s grandchildren that just look like a million other photos of grandchildren.  I admit I am the one at fault here.  I will respond to a sensible discussion such as the latest atrocity Russian troops have inflicted on Ukraine; I very might be happy to stop and pet a neighbours puppy, after all who can resist a puppy keen for attention. Plus I have the added bonus I won’t be getting a vet bill.

I read all the time about so and so’s million followers and wonder if by some miracle their shit doesn’t stink. I wonder how exhausting it must be to be an influencer having to post a thousand times a day. Sure each follower means money for them but is this a life? Posting everything they get for free, photos of them sleeping, eating, smiling forever, then posting their mental anguish for even more money when it all collapses.

Of course I have no followers and I follow no one. I have never posted a photo of a meal to anyone but a friend, but have contemplated posting photos of me ‘trying to come up with a next chapter’ or worse, ‘here’s me avoiding writing the next chapter,’ even worse, here’s me avoiding writing altogether. 

A writer’s life is perhaps the dullest existence on the planet. I don’t even go to the pub and the only coffee shops I like have all gone bust.  To me friendship should last a lifetime.  It is not even necessary to stay in contact for months or even years at a time because once you do, friendships resumes just where it left off.  Sure someone can be aggrieved you don’t find their spiteful, rude offspring ‘awesome’ but a good friendship will survive even that.  My oldest friend has lasted over fifty years, with huge gaps when we lost touch.  Life is far from perfect, often monumentally dull and if I ever do hear from a reader it’s usually to point out that I forgot to feed the dog in Chapter 17 or that Alfa Romeo didn’t bring out that model until 1979.  Luckily I can sit on my rather forlorn patio crowded by overgrown hydrangeas and grieve silently for being so careless and hope I remembered to feed the dog in Chapter 18.
            Enjoy your summer and I hope you all make new friends. Don’t forget to enthuse about their paint jobs and patios and your likes will blossom with ease.
© Sam North August 2023

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