as is my custom I posted a somewhat semi cryptic, yet personally very significant and meaningful status update on facebook a few days ago
a sweet, well meaning friend added a comment that had nothing to do with the status update in any way whatsoever other than that it was written in the comment section underneath my status update. he had something to say and he seized the opportunity
I responded to his comment in the very next comment box under his and felt sure this would close down any flow that might have issued from my original update
now I can safely say that this specific person had no mind to be in anyway contrary, disrespectful or deviant at all, but my amusement turned to wonder in a few seconds as it made me think, “now isn’t this such a sign of our times?”
it also made me think about a line from a Paul Simon lyric that goes something like, … “he makes me think about all of these extra moves I make, and all this herky-jerky motion, and the bag of tricks it takes, to get me through my working day …. one trick pony”
how often do we say what we want to say to others not because we have heard them in any cognitive way and want to respond to them in what they say or feel but simply because they happened to be there in front of us and happened to make a noise by saying something? we say what we say because we want to say it … because we want to say it … and say it we will
how often do we seize every opportunity to ‘market’ ourselves in order to take advantage of some context for ourselves?
perhaps it’s because we are bombarded with so much info – data overload – that we have learned to block out stuff and can only see and hear what we want to see or hear?
“be careful what you hear” we are told
we are also led to consider that we are only able to love others as we love ourselves … and if we often don’t even see them or don’t even hear them, or if we block them out except for the opportunity it affords us to say what we want to say – … well, what might that say about us?
I catch myself doing this often, do you?
to give is better than receiving, to hear than to speak
and when we speak, how much of what we say is of us by our own creative initiative and how much is merely knee-jerk repetition of socially accepted rhetoric – merely memes, washed over pleasantries, subliminal agents of placation, absorptions of times spent listening without hearing, seeing without perceiving…?
and then we go out and contribute to the world we live in, make our cross, our vote for a better future, place our obligatory contribution into the offering plate … and rest at the end of a day with a feeling that this is all okay, and we fall asleep
until the next person says something
and I am honestly and sincerely confident that I too am a sweet, well meaning person with no mind to be in anyway contrary, disrespectful or deviant
