I love people. I love to watch people. I love to be amongst people. I love to hear people and smell people and taste people and feel people. People have an aura that is palpable for me - some are gray and some are bright vivid and colorful.
One of the things I like most in life is to converse. The honest and open sharing of ideas has infinite appeal for me, and I love it when my ideas are challenged by someone (anyone) who is serious and well-intentioned. But I think that the level of our conversations has diminished. Text messaging is not conversing. Email has not yet risen to the level of a well-crafted letter. And instant messaging is a little better, because it's, well, instant. But it's not the same as a warm, human interaction that can only take place when there's a real human conversing face to face. Letter writing used to be OK because it was slow. It was physical. It was a real thing - you could imagine your loved one's hand as it moved across the page. The ariel font is beautiful in it's own right, but it's not the same. I have no physical connection with these letters and words as they appear on the screen. In fact, they are not even really there - they are just representations of the little ones and zeros that have been organized to mean letters. Like on-off switches.
There was a time when friends conversed. On porches. At the store or post office or barber shop. While eating. While drinking. While travelling.
Now it's all about instant, and distant, informing. People want to know your travelogue, not your feelings and impressions. They're afraid of things that are too personal. People are afraid of being too close. People are afraid of these things because we have become so self-reliant and self-centered that we don't want to have to depend on anyone.
Sharing your feelings with someone gives them a potential weapon to use against you. Besides, they're not opening up to me. Why should I stick my neck out?
Yesterday on NPR they talked about this kind of thing. We have become disassociated with ourselves as a society. We value personal choice above personal accountability.
In my mind, it boils down to a lack of conversation. Talking to people helps you learn about what their needs and goals and desires and fears are. And it gives you a chance to off-load some of that yourself. And it strengthens the ties that bind us together, not only as individuals to each other, but as a human race. How much fear and resentment and misunderstanding could be eliminated with just a few exchanges? How much politeness and character are going lacking because people just don't talk to each other? How much could I learn just from opening up a little to someone near me?
I love people. I love you. I really do. I mean it. I want to talk with you. I need you and your strength. Maybe I can share some of mine. Either way, we'll never be the same.
Talk with me.
PS I love this pic. Look at how close these guys are sitting. Look at the expression on thier faces - this is no passive communication. These guys know and love each other.
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