I woke up this morning with the intention of total and utter self-deserved relaxation. Not just physical relaxation, but mental rest too. Today, I thought, I would let the world address its own ordeals and endeavour to engage in all and anything that called for a complete state of inertia and cognitive harmony.
So I greeted the morning with glee and rose to make myself some scrumptious chocolate chip and banana syrup flapjacks; accompanied of course by a steaming cup of not your average Joe. I proceeded to begin reading a book, which after only 2 pages, was forced to surrender to my somewhat lingering lethargic state and decided to close my lids for one more round of shut eye. I lay their comfortably anticipating a sedative REM cycle to guide me gently to another place. I thought to myself, I will not entertain a single thought that surfaces and instead blatantly ignore said thoughts with total and obnoxious disregard. I managed to achieve this goal for approximately 7 ½ minutes, until one such idea was able to astutely out manoeuvre my carefully crafted plan. I politely greeted it with absolutely no intention of inviting any further conversation, until its agenda cleverly over powered any will or mental strength I could contest.
The thought had given birth, and it was simple. The people in this world are weird. Not an esoteric concept to dissect on this Sunday morning, just a plain and clear observation. I shall elaborate.
There are certain expectations and common norms that should or once did connect us. There was an underlying decency and mutual intuition that was unspoken. Not outright noticed, but still there, like buttons on a coat. Buttons which lately serve no purpose.
There seems to be a rather dismissive approach adopted by people today to practice any care or consideration for others around them. We have become so conditioned by a capitalist and individualistic paradigm, that certain core gestures that in respect should be considered common place, have slowly started to disintegrate.
What happened to things like saying thank you, not with today’s instant messaging but with a phone call or a small gift delivered in person? What happened to honouring our commitments and sticking to plans made? Has life become that busy and schedules that erratic that respecting another person’s time is no priority? Or have we instead become that complaisant with last minute let downs that in turn we no longer respect ourselves? What about thinking in advance, so that others are considered, or even caring about the past and the pieces your behaviour has left behind. We are too selfishly engrossed in our “own today” which we somewhere along the line have forgotten does not only belong to us.
What happened to boys asking for girl’s phone numbers and then using them to CALL their subject of interest instead of hiding behind social and instant networks of thumb wars? What happened to taking pride in the impressions you made on others? Instead we squabble about with a “take it or leave it” attitude, which in essence has its place, however should not be used to mask ones lack of esteem to interact with reverence to those and what is going on around them. There is a balance needed here, and that line of balance is sadly being dispensed in a way that is tainting our social fabric.
What I’m trying to say bluntly, is that things have gotten weird. People have gotten weirder. And the only conclusion I can draw is that our isolated existences, ironically in an era of abundant social connectivity, have somewhat started to unstitch the once collective structure we knew as the norm, neglecting a very prudent principle called consideration. We are entering a new era of “norms” which are being written as we speak. Perhaps it is this transition period that is provoking an unwanted anxiety, which naturally, the generation to come should accept with ease. Or… perhaps I should revert to my initial plan of relaxation and let this one live another day.
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