My “Yay-Jon” day was a great success. As I mentioned early, I also used it to celebrate my very successful, even transforming “Delete An Asshole” program. The day was peaceful, healing, uplifting, and lovely, as well as talking, reading, picking up blueberries at the farmer’s market, and taking pictures.

I got everything I wanted, including a reminder of the poison power of hatred.

My Troll Deletion program turned out to be ironic and timely. Sally, an alleged animal rights advocate, sent me a message on the blog right before I wrote about my plans for today.

I hadn’t seen it, but it was a blessing, as it turned out, a signal from the spirits. It began, “Wow, Katz, you are an asshole.”

Sally G’s complaint came from a two-year-old post I wrote about my Amish neighbors.

I said I was impressed by their hard work and farming skills and that, from what I saw, they took good care of their animals, which surprised me.

In some circles, saying anything good about the Amish, even if it is a truthful description of good and kind neighbors, is somewhere between treason and blasphemy.

I am pleased to defend my neighbors. They are good people and care well for their animals. I should know that I always get them special foods at their request. Trolls always remember, but I am learning not to. My neighbors have done nothing wrong.

I will never trash my neighbor to alleviate our country’s growing culture of hatred and ideological fanatics. I do care about the truth, and I care about my neighbors.

At least it wasn’t a death threat, a step up for some people in the animal world. I wrote back to Sally and congratulated her on the irony of the message. She was the perfect person to contact about my deletion program, and I thought about how good it has been for me.

Oddly enough, I was happy to hear from her.

“Sally,”  I wrote, “this is timely and ironic. Thank you for writing to me. Under my new Delete-An-Asshole program, I am deleting your message after reading your opening line. I guess we both had the same thought. I’d love to have a civil conversation with you about my Amish neighbors and my defense of them. If you ever want to discuss it, try again, but first, you have to learn some manners. Horses deserve better.”

And then, feeling proud of myself—I’ve given up anger on social media and elsewhere—I had my good and peaceful day, just the day I wanted. I  felt liberated from what people say about me and focused on what people like about me and what I like about them (and myself). It took me a while to recall what she was talking about, talk about holding a grudge.

To me, that is real progress and health. And yes, freedom. Hatred is never good or accomplishes anything good. I am happy to get rid of it; it took me too long.

I had a long romance with anger, even hatred; I am much lighter without it. I might try this again tomorrow; thanks for your kind words and good wishes. Hitting that deletion button was a gift, an uplifting one. I don’t want to drift into narcissism, but I like this “Yay-Jon” day. Yay, Jon!

I won’t waste my energy on another minute; I’m sure there will be slips; I am all too human. I thank the Sallys of the world for that and the very good people who were patient with me as I learned to grow up and let go of the past.