“ People just aren’t writing very much, or worse, taking breaks or disappearing all together. There is a strong sense of defeatism.” — Aura Wilming

You are spot on, Aura. That strong sense of defeatism has become very, very palpable on Medium as of late. It’s like a very thick cloud of acrid pollution that seems to hang over Medium. I can feel it as soon as I land here after clicking the Medium link in my Favorites task bar. It makes me not want to click myself here (especially if I’m in a good mood).

Six of my favorite writers here on Medium have all left in just the last two or three weeks. I miss them. I feel their pain and the defeatism that drove them away.

Can someone please open up the windows so that we can get a breeze going to blow this pollution away?

Today has been a day off from my part-time job and my intent upon awakening this morning was to do some writing on Medium. (I have been so busy with other things that I’ve done very little writing here in the last week or two.) But after arriving here at Medium this morning I was practically asphyxiated by the cloud of defeatist pollution. I couldn’t take it for more than about 10 minutes before I simply had to leave.

So I spent the better part of the day working on other stuff at other locations on the web. To my delight, I got a heck of a lot of work done. That always feels good.

With a strong sense of accomplishment I got up from my desk and went for a walk out-of-doors. That always feels good, too. Man, nature is so freaking cool. We live in an absolute paradise on this planet but we spend our time glued to a monitor through which we enter and live in a fake reality.

How do we transplant the mojo of the real world into the fake cyber world?

Anyway, after my delightful walk I cooked me up some fajitas. Then, with a full belly, I sat back down at my desk. Immediately upon arriving in Mediumland I was overcome with that toxic cloud of defeatist gas. It was overwhelming. But then I stumbled upon a cheerleader named Aura Wilming who was calling on all of us to look within to find our mojo.

‘Mojo’ is one of my favorite words in the entire American language and it tickles me pink when someone else uses it besides me. Oh Aura! You know how to turn me on.

But can I turn on my mojo? Can I diffuse the defeatism to open the Pandora’s box? Can I go deep enough within to unleash the mojo that boils at the bottom of the cauldron of my being? Can I make myself laugh as hard as I did after writing the last few sentences? And can I make anyone else laugh or cry or think? Can I put some love out there? Can I touch and unleash my mojo?

I don’t know. I guess we’ll see….