What's the Rush? Why We Can't Seem to Slow Down

So in today's world, we seem to be running, walking even, in a million different directions at about a hundred miles a minute. Why is that?

When we're slated to die eventually, why make it come any faster, any closer than it really needs to be?

Technology.

Seriously - think about it! Without computers, smart phones, e-readers, email, social media, whatever else that involves humans staring blankly at screens for hours on end with no real true interaction, what's left? We've completely lost our ability to have conversations (I'm not talking about 'text message' conversations people) but live, human-to-human, person-to-person conversations.  The valuable kind where you can actually see their live reaction, hear the emotions in their voice, smell the sweat when you're getting into a really heated debate, feel the tension in the room building...

It's magnetic, and yet we're denying ourselves the luxury of interacting as humans are naturally and genetically programmed to do.

I once read a book for a communication course in college about the evolution of gossip. It was actually a fascinating read - it argued that since the dawn of human existence, humans have a natural need for cultivating relationships. The human ancestor, the chimpanzee, had some of the first instances of gossip and interaction as we know it today. I know it might seem crazy, but for real people - chimps, females mostly, would get in a line and groom one another and gossip (yes I said gossip!!) to each other during this process. So in theory, cleanliness for survival was part of the social experience, and vice-versa one could argue.

So what are we to take away from this?

I for one am just as much a victim of technology as the next person - I mean I'm writing this blog post on a computer for crying out loud. (It happens when I can't sleep, can you blame me?) But I like to think that I keep a decent balance of being technologically savvy and being a normal, conversing human being with thoughts, emotions, opinions, fears, hopes, dreams, the whole shebang.

One thing I really hate is when I see people on public transit, reading their e-readers and texting and scrolling on their phones, never once having just a normal, natural human conversation. I'm not saying you need to strike up a conversation with every person you see on your way home from work on the subway. Trust me, I did it for years and love my peace and quiet just as much as you probably do. Especially after long, hard hours at the office. All I'm asking is that you look up - on occasion, just glance at the person next to you, see if you can find a window of opportunity to smile, or just laugh or offer them your two cents if you happen to stumble into someone else's conversation. It won't hurt you, and it certainly won't be artificial like that phone you're holding. It won't have a conversation with you naturally (you could say Siri might, but she's still robotic and I still find her creepy)...

So get off your phones people! Look around you! You're not going to learn the value of life and love, health and happiness, without some conversations - the live ones.

One more quick story (too late I know!) - I was in CVS today waiting for a prescription, and of course 'fifteen minutes' turns into about a half hour. Whatever, not like I was dying to get somewhere else, but no one seriously likes to wait for something they don't have to. One of those other natural human things - a desire to get something now, and be done with it.

My point is this - I was sitting patiently and a guy comes up with his niece, an older Italian guy with some years on him, and started telling me jokes. He not only made me laugh, he had me talking to him for a while during our wait. He smiled and laughed back, sharing experiences, talking about his cruises, telling me how he quit smoking after years of it and that was the best decision he ever made. Real good solid HUMAN things.

Everyone needs to realize that people are naturally curious and social creatures - you, me, the gal on the subway, the guy at the pharmacy - and we're all in this world together to create and live and converse and later die (sorry for that bit of morbidity in the line of transcendalism, my bad). But we're all supposed to have conversations, to share experiences, to live together, to share each other's feelings and toils, to discuss serious and funny topics, to smile and laugh together at each other's jokes.

My vote is this: Humans are and always will be socially interactive, so instead of our 'social media' doing it for us, let's do the talking ourselves, shall we?

Patience is Indeed a Virtue

I'm baaaaaack!

Okay so...where did we leave off? Oh, not sure? Good. Me neither. Doesn't matter.

Today I found myself at a loss of reasons as to why I'm still unemployed. Yes, lost my job in June due to lay offs and thought I would land something soon. Not three plus months later, but soon. Not happening.

So obviously I've had this pretty major setback, and you'd think I'd take it real bad. Which I did, eventually. At first, it felt just like a blur, one I somewhat expected and one I even predicted (and turned out to be right. Which makes me think I should just be a psychic, but that's another matter saved for another day and another post). But I thought I would have a worse and more intense reaction to getting laid off. Turns out I didn't, and I handled it better than my family, boyfriend, friends, co-workers, and even boss thought I would. Props to me!

Moral of this story though...I was fine at first, somehow got my life in order (at least relatively speaking and as much as I humanly and legally could) and I was good for a while. Enjoyed it even. Hell, it was summer and I had a couple of teacher friends on break and was going to the pool and beach and getting tanned all for free on unemployment! Sweet! (I was hardcore looking for jobs though before you report me to the IRS...if you check my Gmail, you will see over 50 job applications sent within the first week, so yes I was being productive).

Then I hit a wall...proverbial of course, but it might as well have been a real concrete one. Solid steel beams built in with concrete. That bad. Injuries sustained to the ego, tear marks streaming down my face, I had lost it. Completely and utterly lost my cool.

Nothing had panned out for a while, and even though I was getting interviews and everything, nothing stuck. I was feeling pretty crappy, as I'm sure anyone else in my position would be feeling.

Summer went by, (Fast!), and suddenly I found myself alone and still without any solid offers. Sure, I had one or two come my way but getting double their proposed salary in unemployment benefits...yeah, sorry buddy, I'm going to stick it out a while longer. Thanks but no thanks.

Now I find myself berating myself, doubting myself, running out of free friends and time and medical benefits, the whole shebang. Nothing is going my way!

This is crazy and very unnerving because for the first time in my life that I can really remember, I am without work and it is not my fault. Things are not in my control and I'm doing everything I can but I still am getting nowhere.

This. is. driving. me. NUTS!!!!!!!!!

Depression settles in like an unwelcome guest, and I find myself going stir crazy but not wanting to vent at ever walking pedestrian for fear they might catch my temporary insane boredom disease. I feel like a leper without the obvious physical signs but with all the emotion signs to lead them to believe I had in fact been bit. By the boredom-going-out-of-my-mind-with-crazy-freetime-I'm-going-to-kill-someone bug. Not super contagious, thank goodness.

Suggestions as to what to do? Because I'm all out.

All I can think is that God is perhaps finally giving me time to (for once, or at least for once in a very long time) think about my needs, my concerns, my problems, myself. Is that so crazy?  God is teaching me a very important lesson I probably never truly grasped - PATIENCE. Be patient, and things will work out the way they were meant to. God never gives you something you can't handle, so maybe this is my chance to figure out some time to work on myself and learn the art and virtue of PATIENCE.

Not something I'm great at or even remotely come close to comprehending, but hey, considering I have nothing else to do, I'll give it a shot. :)