A Lonely World
Do you remember the days when people used to interact and have conversations? Between pandemic isolation, social media psychosis, and stress inducing remote servitude, I don’t know where to start. We are connected and so disconnected from each other at the same time. The fabric of humanity is being ripped apart like a news article awkwardly printed on a ten and a half by eleven inch paper etched with a laser jet sitting in an unoccupied office.
What is worse being socially isolated or reducing the risk of spreading a virus? I call that a tootsie roll question. In the 60’s there was a TV commercial that posed one of the most interesting questions, in my humble opinion. How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie roll lollipop? The conclusion was just as you’d expect. It’s true, owls have wisdom to share.
“The world may never know.”
Mask or No Mask that is the question now. Why does that matter? It’s a question that divides and isolates people. The real problem has nothing to do with masks though. It’s that we can’t hold conversations with one another about anything. At some point during nearly every conversation a contentious topic is brought up and one of the conversation’s participants is offended. Subsequently, the conversation gets cancelled just like everything else in this wacky world that we live in today. There used to be a time, perhaps in the 1960’s, when people could agree to disagree and continue talking. It’s ok to have differing opinions, views, and thoughts. Today we live in a one-sided world with unilateral perspectives and no place to meet in the middle. There is a chasm between everyone in so many ways and no way to form a bridge. I urge you to question this new way of life and try to build a bridge of understanding. Let’s all meet in the middle and fall into the center of the earth together.
As I take a picture of my perfect life on the beach I show the world I have no worries and everything is fine.
I’m living my perfect life.
My life is far from perfect. In fact, I’m living through the darkest time of my life. The reality is that I feel like I am being shrink wrapped by one of those infomercial shrink wrapping devices and all of the air that makes up my world is being taken away. Slowly, I am the only thing that is left in the plastic bag and the heating element is just getting warm. We scroll and see the lives of other people pass before our eyes and wonder, why? Why am I sitting on a couch while Joe Schmo is climbing Mt. Everest. Why am I not taking a picture of my baby sitting next to a pumpkin? Why am I not good enough or worthy to be part of this perfectly crafted society? We created this reverse-limbo network where the proverbial limbo bar keeps getting higher and now we need to jump over the bar instead of going lower. How high can you go? Eventually we come the realization that everything we want is unattainable and everything we try fails, but somehow everyone around us is easily getting back in line for the next reverse-limbo jump. It’s impossible to feel satisfied with what we’ve accomplished in life when we look on the internet and find out someone one-upped us every single day. I wish that there was some way to be part of a world that had no expectations. A world where simply being is enough. A place where Loving Kindness is shared and people embrace empathy. A place where people care about each other. Is that too much to ask for? Maybe I’m dreaming, but surely I’m not the only one.
Workers have no power or control over anything. The market dictates a fair wage, but there is no such thing as fair. There’s no equity or ownership by the average person. Purpose has been thrown out the window for a replaceable workforce. Livelihood is gone. The relationship between employer and employee is a login to Teams, a list of tasks completed, and a direct deposit form. Do your job and get a paycheck. Work hard and you will be rewarded. Somewhere in that story enters greed and exploitation. The bottom line grows and workers struggle to make ends meet. Affordable things like the “American Dream” drift out of reach and become unaffordable while stock prices rise and investors stack their cash. There’s something wrong with this story. Where has equity gone? There are people that spend their lives devoted to corporations who retire at 65 after earning just enough to get by every year. They retire and soon after they die. Meanwhile, the next generation plans for this same ending while they sit in solitude with a camera pointed at their face and an application monitoring key strokes, mouse movements, and productivity. Companies have no emotion. Companies don’t care about us, the humans that created them. They control us. Our lives are an expense line on a corporate income statement. We are just the cost of doing business.
I spend a lot of time thinking. I wonder if anyone will read what I write. I want to have the important conversations that need to be happening. I want to be the catalyst for a movement in a good direction. A direction forward together in unity. Until then, you can find me sitting alone at a coffee shop with my face down in a phone and my fingers moving around for no reason.
