I continue to think about what we can learn from our Facebook friends and today, I read through the timeline and have gathered this collection of random thoughts.

A friend has recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and has been writing a bit about it. One of her posts said,

An American College of Rheumatology study in 1992 found the the impact of FMS on your life is as bad, or worse , than Rheumatoid Arthritis. They listed one major factor in this as "clinician bias". FMS patients don't look sick, so they are often victimized by clinicians, family, and friends, leaving them with self doubt, guilt, and loss of self-esteem.

I have friends with both RA and FMS and I don't think it is beneficial to get into whose conditions are worse. Yet the comment about having invisible illnesses is very important, especially as it relates to "self doubt, guilt, and loss of self-esteem".

Are our interactions on Facebook helping others deal positively with self doubt, guilt, and loss of self-esteem, or are we posting negative comments about others or positive comments about ourselves in unconstructive efforts to boost our own pride at the expense of others?

As an illustration, another person I know, has been posting almost nothing but negative comments about President Obama and other black leaders. I suspect he doesn't considered himself racist, he's from Connecticut, after all, but he is the person most handicapped by racism that I know.

I've been thinking a bit about handicaps, whether it is invisible illness that is handicapping you, racism that is handicapping you, or more visible mobility issues that handicap you. Several friends of my shared a wonderful video Handicapped man answers "drummer wanted" ad and impresses others. Take time to watch this video and think about your handicaps and what you do to succeed in spite of them.

One final thought from this mornings Facebook posts. Many are telling great stories of heading to the March in Washington or to Burning Man. One friend wrote about her mother, who couldn't make it to the March fifty years ago because she was just out of college and had just started a teaching job.

She was broke, as many college graduates are (I can't imagine that much has changed lol); and was unable to attend the historic March on Washington.

#FastForward to 2013: she spent this whole week at Orientation at Yale Divinity School, prepping to pursue an M.Div.. And tonight she boarded a bus that's DC-bound for the 50th Commemoration of the March on Washington. "I might not get another chance like this."

I would love to be at the March. I would love to be at Burning Man. Other friends are posting wonderful pictures of their vacations, and I am long overdue for a vacation, so, I will do one last go round, cleaning the car, and then we will head off to Cape Cod.