I
had an unexpected message from an ex this morning. It really surprised me. I
won't say who, as I think I might have mentioned her in the annals of this
blog, many years ago...
It
feels weird even writing the phrase "an ex". Philippa and I have been
together nearly 15 years now, so anyone that came before her is a sad and
distant memory from a past that I would rather never revisit. I'm not exactly
active on social media, so I'm not one of those that is in regular 'contact'
with everyone I've ever encountered. I think I may have remarked in these
writings before that I don't think it's good for anyone to have that horrible
level of constant connection with all the people from your past. We drift into,
and out of, each other's lives and we're not supposed to linger when there's no
reason to. That's the way it used to be, and that's the way I think humanity
works best, and yet the modern world has torn that away from us all. It's impossible
to step away completely. People can always find you, and - as I've discovered
today- they can always reach out and message you.
I'm not even sure what the point is. The young lady and I had a very brief and
very unsatisfying relationship that died a very sudden death, and now nearly
two decades letter she gets the urge to send me a missive? I don't get the
motivation, or the intention, and it's left me feeling a little unsettled and
weirdly unsafe. It was only a few lines, telling me that a colleague had
mentioned me, and had mentioned that they read my blog (and it always amazes me
that anyone would say that!) and that she had looked it up herself and
had a read-through and just thought she'd say Hello. And then she said a lot
more than Hello, filling me in on her current work situation and the fact that
she is now a mum.
Why
I would need to know this, and why she felt the need to tell me, I know not.
(The child is only three years old, by the way, in case you were thinking it
might be mine and that might be my she was contacting me...)
Anyway, I have decided not to engage. I'm thinking it might be a sophisticated
AI bot that has trawled my past writings and found her name and manufactured a
fake profile for her; to contact me and try to extract my personal information.
I am nothing if not cynical.
I
suppose I can't moan too much. I do write lots of personal stuff in these
postings, so readers may feel like we are friends to a level that I'm not
really comfortable with, but can't really complain about.
But it did unsettle me.
RC 8-7-25
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