On Being Authentic

This question lingers: If LinkedIn disappeared tomorrow, would my success still feel authentic?

My answer reflects my self:

Absolutely. I'm still authentic. I don't write stories, poems, matters of the human condition, and comments on issues that affect us only because I want to satisfy the algorithm.

I write because I want to cure myself of this urge to write, and in doing so, I bring myself to the audience who may approve or disprove my work.

Through my posts, people get to know me—people, not the algorithm.

I don't care what the algorithm wants and cares. It's me who is out there before everybody's eyes. I guess the algorithm is a kind of evil angel lurking in the darkness of invisibility, approving or disproving my work, but it cannot, should not, and will not censure my thoughts.

And because writing is the most solitary of works, my mindset when writing is this: I am swimming naked in a solitary lagoon under the moonlight. A forest surrounds the beautiful lagoon. I can see the yellow eyes sparkling among the branches at night. Those are of the beasts that want to devour me: the logarithm, the rules of the game, the nasty comments, the negative people) but I don't care about them because swimming naked, I feel safe. Soon, it is daytime, and every danger disappears, so I emerge victorious and happy. Because I am who I am.

My thoughts and heart belong to you, to him, to her, to them, to everybody alive with a soul, who has dreams and hopes, who speaks one language or another, who wants peace and is open to love.

And you are my audience, and these are my words, not what the algorithm determines.

Yet the algorithm understands nothing of this.

LinkedIn is you. You're my audience, and these are my words, not what the algorithm says they should be or what my words must be.

In truth, I'm old enough, born long before the age of the algorithm was in place, subjugating and embittering so many lives. So, I don't even know what the algorithm is, although it can be a kind of Matrix to whom everybody must report as soon as they start typing.

I post my ideas and work to show people what I do and think in poetry or prose because this is my art. In my case, I'm not running for anything. I'm not looking for trophies other than my satisfaction in writing my stories and poems and telling people who I am through them.

I'm competing with nobody. I already have a purpose in life, and most of it I have fulfilled already.

People can dream of success or failure. Yes, some people dream of failure and live in constant fear, but paradoxically, it is not that bad because we are alive and have beliefs that keep us moving forward, no matter what, regardless of platforms. LinkedIn or another platform doesn't take our identity or who we are. And the most potent meaning we can find in life is in our dreams, fulfilled or not.

And no algorithm can control that yet. (That's the scary thing.)

So, in the meantime, express yourself and write until the last tear (or tear up the page.)

Peace and love to all. 💗