Sunday, October 19, 2014

Sometimes social media suprises ya

There are optimist and pessimist. I have been both at different times throughout my life but I seemed to have settled on being a realist. It may be due to me being a Gemini, or that may be just a Bullshit excuse and my feelings are just due to my upbringing and life experiences, but whatever the reason I am dualistic in nature. I have this desire for good to overcome evil, a desire for happiness to win out, a belief that right is...well, right. But because I live and breathe I know that deception gets ahead, bad is bolder, and negativity is suffocating.

In these modern times we live in, it seems that the majority of the human population exist on some form of social media. Social media can often times be a cruel hateful bitch. People can take your identity, find out your dark secrets, and even (what I consider the most heartbreaking) use it as a format for 'cyberbullying'. I recently closed my facebook account. It became depressing. I would see posts from people talking about how amazingly perfect their life was. Storybook, with the perfectly handsome spouse, perfectly behaved kids, perfectly designed home, perfectly expensive cars. But it was just surface perfection. Empty and sad. Then there were posts from those who seem to never have anything positive to say. Always complaining and putting people down based on their beliefs, life choices, politics, anything. Just hateful. Then there were people who were just nosy and wanted to keep in touch not out of true friendship, but just to keep tabs on your life progress. So I pulled the plug on that. I've been on Twitter forever and just find it to be more pleasant and fun so that's where I've stayed.
 

This week I was very pleasantly surprised. My mom now has a facebook page and as moms often do, talks too much about her children, of course that’s when she’s not talking about her grandchildren. Backstory time …. I have recently been battling insurance companies over my health care. Even though I have been repeatedly told to go on disability, I choose to continue working. There are many reasons for this, but I won't get into them now (that’s another post). But I do work and I work hard, harder than my doctors want me too and sometimes harder than my body allows. I pay for my insurance and am insured by a well known company. However, this well known company continues to make decisions on my medications, medical tests, and care not based on my diseases or my doctor’s medical knowledge much less on my well being but solely on cost efficiency -- But only for them not for me.
 
So this week I've had my well known insurance company refuse to cover medical testing that my doctors say I need, only to suggest I go thru testing that I don't need, but is cheaper for them but far less effective in providing me any kind of relief. Also they are charging me hundreds of dollars on a single medication because it's new to the market and they think I can go without it, because I have been until now … going without it. Keep in mind this medication wasn’t available before for me and my doctor to decide it didn’t work and I didn’t need it, however this well known insurance company was able to determine that without any research at all.   

All of this is not new, I’m used to it … but mom …. Well she’s frustrated so, as people do on Social Media, she opened the page and posted the “Saga of Golden” to her friends albeit against my wishes, or knowledge really. Before I knew it, people from all over were gathering to help. Some are people I knew as a child that grew into medical professionals who were able to call in favors and donate med samples. Some are people that knew my mom when she was a child that have never even met me, trying to donate money to cover the cost of my medicine when my own well known insurance company woudln’t. I am literally in awe! We asked for nothing, we expected nothing. My mom was just venting the frustrations a mother, who has a chronically sick kid, has to get them off her chest and mind so that she might be able to sleep a little bit that night. Yet, we received so much kindness and support from that one post it was kinda overwhelming.

So while it seems that while I have let life beat me into a position of a realist, I have seen the beauty in humanity's optimistic displays, and I am truly grateful. Not for the favors but for the thoughts, the kindness and the hope that it all brings. So I just want to say thank you all for the kindness you have put out into the universe. I can't find a way to express how much it means to me. It has shown me that often times humanity isn't as dark as what I imagine it to be. That sometimes, when you least expect it, mankind's nature can truly shine.

-golden (@theonlygolden)

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