Okay, so today on my way to work something struck me (no not another car). A thought struck me while I was on the phone. Through the conversation I was told that a friend of mine (not the one I was talking to) was leaving tomorrow for L.A. The only reason this person came up is because we workout with her on Tuesdays (today being Tuesday, of course, I inquired about the time to meet tonight.) I found out that she was going to L.A. and when I said, "I didn't know about this" the response was simply this, "It was on her facebook."
Last week one of my closest friends was having a party (far be it for me to not show up somewhere where there is alcohol.) This friend told me about it, but didn't have any information at the time. So when Friday rolled around, I needed to know the address of where we were going, and the response was, "It was on my facebook."
The point is this...facebook (and I do love my facebook), but facebook (or the sites similar) seem to be the way we are finding out about people. Now when I say "people" I don't mean the people you haven't seen for ten years, or the people you have just met overnight at some coffee bar on 4th Ave. I mean friends, people you know well; people you spend a great deal of your time with; family members even to some.
I think with every new addition to make the world smaller, we somehow find a way to make it big again and take away all of the work we have accomplished. I love facebook for the fact that we can keep in touch with the people that we don't have around as much anymore, and for that I am grateful that the world is getting smaller. However, with that power is coming consequences. We seem to be communicating to the people we know the most through facebook or texting, and we don't seem to be talking anymore. Our modern definition of communication is making the people who live far away close to us, but with this medium it is making the people who live next door farther from us.
Far be it for me to say this and not be a victim of it. I am guilty as everyone else of having God only knows how many texts per month (thank you unlimited text plan) and contacting people through the internet to meet them (thank you facebook chat; although you suck sometimes.) I am guilty of this just like everyone else.
However, this kind of communication process is both scary and exciting. We are reading up about our best friends as if they were some kind of celebrities; as if they were people that we don't really know, but instead people that we are living through. With every step closer to each other we are distancing ourself further from people.
We need to use this new technological power to our advantage, but at the same time we should be careful that this technology doesn't end up taking advantage of us. All I am saying, to myself as well, is that we should not give up facebook (Lord, I think I would cry for weeks), but instead take the time out to call the people you love, to TALK to the ones who mean something in your life. Let them know they love you.
Talking on the phone is the new writing a letter. You know that great feeling when you get a letter in the mail? The feeling that means that somebody has taken out the time to write out a note, to send it through the mail to you. That is now what talking on the phone is like....someone is taking out the time.
No facebook or text can compare with the power of the human voice. After all remember, the originals or anything are kind of hard to beat. So the original communications are better off not being lost just because technology made it easier.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
THE ZOO
So this weekend was $5 day at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. When I was told that a normally $20 charge was going down to $5, well who am I to pass up a deal to see caged animals for cheap? So the four of us going were just going about a typical day in the zoo. The talker was talking, the photographer was photographing, the smokers were smoking (and no i won't tell you which one I was; you can guess....okay I was the talker.)
Moving on. So there we were just staring at all of the animals. Watching the monkeys, thinking they were cute; watching the rhinos, thinking they were massive; watching the birds, and not thinking much. Well then the clouds opened up and rain came down in droves. The four of us ran to the nearest shelter we could possibly find. Well, what do you know, there we were in the home of my favorite animal ever, the white tiger.
All of a sudden we had no choice, unless we wanted to be drenched, but to sit and watch the tigers. We couldn't just walk and look and walk on; we wanted to be dry so we stayed under the shelter of the white tiger habitat. There was no other choice but to watch these proud creatures.
Fortunately, we had quite a playful little duo. There were two tigers that decided all of a sudden they wanted to play. There they went just splashing though the water, bringing paws to paws and attempting to bite (but as huge as they are, they just appeared like little puppies). They splashed through thier little pool that was being soaked in the water falling from the sky, but they were enjoying their time so much.
Then sitting on a stoop that was built for them was another white tiger. This one seemed so much more regal then the two smaller kittens. It was massive and just sitting on its roost like it owned the place. Sitting their nonchalantly with the slashes of black on it's white fur (kind of like their paw slashed paint over their body.)
This massive creature turned to face the window i was gawking through and he just stared; looked away, looked back, and just stared. He kept repeating this. As he did this (I say he, to be honest, wasn't really sure and wasn't going to check) I looked into the face of this tiger and I don't know what happened, but something struck me, and I started tearing up. There was beauty I had never stopped to notice before. I mean here was, what I consider to be, the most beautiful creature ever created, and there were these visuals I never stopped to look at before. I looked into the animals eyes, and how they were shaped. I couldn't go anywhere so I watched how the creatures slashed through the water playing. I was fixated when it started playing with this ball hanging from the stand that was created for them. I couldn't stop looking at the one just lying down. These were creatures that I love, but it felt as if I saw them for the first time.
This moment just got me thinking about all the other things that I may have missed at the zoo. Maybe there is something about the elephant that I missed because I stopped to look and then moved on to the giraffe. Maybe I missed something even more gorgeous then normal in the girffe becuase I stopped to look only to think about the zebra in the area next to him.
As a culture we don't really stop to appreciate the natural things in life that exist around us. We think the sunset is gorgeous, but we never stop and sit and stare and literally watch it fall behind the horizon. We stop to look at it, think about it's beauty, and then go on about our lives. We never actually stop and APPRECIATE these things.
The world is getting more and more fast-paced (even at the zoo you are, in a way, kind of maneuvered through as if it was a nature based IKEA). We don't stop to appreciate the things that man had no control over creating.
The sun; the moon, the stars; the flowers; the breeze; the animals; the ocean; the smiles; ourselves. We don't overlook any of these things. We know they exist, I mean we would have to be complete baffoons to not know they exist; but we really don't ever take the time to appreciate them for ourselves.
Beauty is all around us, it basically inhabits every square inch of where we live. But as I stop to think about the subject, I don't know a single building that is so amazing that it beats the view of a sunset lighting up a horizon. I don't know of a single work of art that is so breathtaking that it can take away those split seconds when that proud white tiger glanced in my direction.
We have to cherish these moments. They are free. They are breathtaking. They are natural. They are there for us to view. I mean what have you got to lose except time? Of course when you ponder that statement, what is time anyway? What is all this nautral beauty when put against time, after all that is man-made.
Moving on. So there we were just staring at all of the animals. Watching the monkeys, thinking they were cute; watching the rhinos, thinking they were massive; watching the birds, and not thinking much. Well then the clouds opened up and rain came down in droves. The four of us ran to the nearest shelter we could possibly find. Well, what do you know, there we were in the home of my favorite animal ever, the white tiger.
All of a sudden we had no choice, unless we wanted to be drenched, but to sit and watch the tigers. We couldn't just walk and look and walk on; we wanted to be dry so we stayed under the shelter of the white tiger habitat. There was no other choice but to watch these proud creatures.
Fortunately, we had quite a playful little duo. There were two tigers that decided all of a sudden they wanted to play. There they went just splashing though the water, bringing paws to paws and attempting to bite (but as huge as they are, they just appeared like little puppies). They splashed through thier little pool that was being soaked in the water falling from the sky, but they were enjoying their time so much.
Then sitting on a stoop that was built for them was another white tiger. This one seemed so much more regal then the two smaller kittens. It was massive and just sitting on its roost like it owned the place. Sitting their nonchalantly with the slashes of black on it's white fur (kind of like their paw slashed paint over their body.)
This massive creature turned to face the window i was gawking through and he just stared; looked away, looked back, and just stared. He kept repeating this. As he did this (I say he, to be honest, wasn't really sure and wasn't going to check) I looked into the face of this tiger and I don't know what happened, but something struck me, and I started tearing up. There was beauty I had never stopped to notice before. I mean here was, what I consider to be, the most beautiful creature ever created, and there were these visuals I never stopped to look at before. I looked into the animals eyes, and how they were shaped. I couldn't go anywhere so I watched how the creatures slashed through the water playing. I was fixated when it started playing with this ball hanging from the stand that was created for them. I couldn't stop looking at the one just lying down. These were creatures that I love, but it felt as if I saw them for the first time.
This moment just got me thinking about all the other things that I may have missed at the zoo. Maybe there is something about the elephant that I missed because I stopped to look and then moved on to the giraffe. Maybe I missed something even more gorgeous then normal in the girffe becuase I stopped to look only to think about the zebra in the area next to him.
As a culture we don't really stop to appreciate the natural things in life that exist around us. We think the sunset is gorgeous, but we never stop and sit and stare and literally watch it fall behind the horizon. We stop to look at it, think about it's beauty, and then go on about our lives. We never actually stop and APPRECIATE these things.
The world is getting more and more fast-paced (even at the zoo you are, in a way, kind of maneuvered through as if it was a nature based IKEA). We don't stop to appreciate the things that man had no control over creating.
The sun; the moon, the stars; the flowers; the breeze; the animals; the ocean; the smiles; ourselves. We don't overlook any of these things. We know they exist, I mean we would have to be complete baffoons to not know they exist; but we really don't ever take the time to appreciate them for ourselves.
Beauty is all around us, it basically inhabits every square inch of where we live. But as I stop to think about the subject, I don't know a single building that is so amazing that it beats the view of a sunset lighting up a horizon. I don't know of a single work of art that is so breathtaking that it can take away those split seconds when that proud white tiger glanced in my direction.
We have to cherish these moments. They are free. They are breathtaking. They are natural. They are there for us to view. I mean what have you got to lose except time? Of course when you ponder that statement, what is time anyway? What is all this nautral beauty when put against time, after all that is man-made.
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