A couple of weeks ago, i treated myself to a new, external computer microphone and media light and was excited at the prospect of creating more YouTube content, which I usually end up posting here on the blog, as well as on my blog’s Facebook page. By the way, if you haven’t followed my YouTube page, take thirty seconds and go hit follow. Thanks. Anyway, I started toying with the idea of doing a Facebook Live event. This was mostly inspired by my friend Ricky (Hi, Ricky!) who has done a number of Live events on Facebook where he’s played live music.
I sent out feelers, both here and on the Facebook page, asking if there would be any interest in having me do a live event, which could cover a variety of topics including but not limited to, martial arts, Diabetes and health & fitness. It would be a smooth Q&A format and would run for about half an hour to an hour, depending on the questions and interest. I only had a person or two express any interest with none of my several hundred followers acknowledging or responding at all.
This is perfectly fine, since I totally get that most people either may not commit to attending something virtual that isn’t work-related or that it may simply not interest them. I put the matter to bed with no intentions of proceeding. Then, I spoke with someone who logically pointed out that if I took the added step to schedule the Live and post the date and time, people would organically show up. So that’s what I did. Although quite short notice, I posted last Wednesday morning that I would be performing a Live event that evening, once I was home from work.
Once again, there was no interest shown beyond a like or two and one person who indicated they were attending but I took the advice I was given to heart and worked through my day with the impression I would be sticking my face out in the world that evening. Then, circumstances took place that saw me cancel the event mere minutes before airing. I’ve had a few readers message me to ask what those circumstances were. Although my first instinct would be to say that it doesn’t matter, far be it from me NOT to address something I’ve been asked, so long as it’s within my authority to answer.
The simple answer is it’s because of my children. There you go, thanks for reading. Seriously though, it is related to my two sons. As I often like to remind everyone, life rarely cares about one’s plans and one needs to accept that things don’t always work out. In this instance, I got home and enjoyed a meal prepared by my loving wife. I did the dishes and managed to sit for about twenty minutes to rest from my day before I decided to go downstairs and prep for the event. My oldest was in his room playing on his gaming device and was content. My toddler was in the living room with my wife and seemed content but I would have been satisfied with having him join, since either son is fine on his own; it’s once they’re in the same room that chaos ensues.
The baby did join me shortly after I went downstairs but it was fine as he was playing with some toys and was overall content. But for whatever reason, my oldest chose five minutes before my event went live to come join and the fight was on. Screaming, wrestling and throwing of just about everything that wasn’t nailed down and a few things that were. I imposed some parental oversight, but there was no controlling two Cook males, locked in the throes of playtime. After some intervention and an unfortunate couple of bouts of raising my voice beyond humans range of hearing, I recognized that my children simply wouldn’t allow this Live to happen as planned.
So, I cancelled it. There you have it. I opted to go outside and burn an hour on the punching but alas, life wasn’t done with me and my Bluetooth speaker died on me, leaving me to idly punch without music. Total bullshit. Will I make a second attempt at hosting a Live event? Maybe. I’m still fixated on the fact that no real interest was shown or expressed. And as they say, the people have spoken. Going live means one doesn’t have the security of stopping and restarting if one stammers, coughs, screws up, etc… It opens up a particular level of vulnerability. As to whether I want to expose myself to that vulnerability if no one attends is the question. Stay tuned! ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 