As Al Pacino said in a movie, "The worst vice is advice." It's probably not helpful to try and admonish someone into making a change. Each of us does, every moment of our lives, exactly what we really believed we had to do at that moment. This I believe. Second-guessing past decisions has limited usefulness. I do think it is a great exercise to look back and ask, "Did I really consider alternative options?" When I'm bravely honest with myself, I tend to realize I under-considered my alternatives. I find that to be self-empowering. I refuse to accept that I'm some sap that can't help being victimized. Instead, I tend to ask myself, "How was I complicit in me getting into the jam I got into?" I'm not into "guilting" myself. But I'm big into claiming whatever control I can exert over my circumstances. That was instilled in me quite young, and I glad it was. It hasn't led to me having a wonderful life, as my threads can testify to. But I think it has kept me out of a lot of even worse crap I could have got into . . . and I got into enough.

Tossing things around on threads is fine. However, we live in the real world and it offers us resources. I say: investigate those and don't assume you already know what they are. I'm talking to myself, right now, as much as to anyone else. Because I need help, and I'm spending way too much time in cyberspace myself, making believe that this gets me somewhere. It is very human to under-appreciate that we have access to more than what we take advantage of.

At one time, calling an advice line for women was helpful to me, beyond what I expected. Might, or might not, help someone else. But something out there is of value to explore no matter what the problem is. Our biggest enemy can be inertia.

With that, I think I'll get out of bed and put down my "device." Satan truly had a hand in the digital revolution . . . or he just really exploits it.