Well here I am in my fourth month at my new house and I have yet to familiarize myself with my busy neighbors. On my left is an older couple who adorn and clutter their yard with the strangest, rarest and most poisonous plants and call it 'landscaping'. The head of the house is a frail looking man who is stricken with cancer. He walks tall and has a pleasant and confident voice that gives no indications of the betrayal his body has coldly put upon him. He seems content cozying up in his modest house as frequenting outside is not a continual habit of his. Though some days, early in the morning I am awoken by the horn of a car and I know that he is being carpooled to radiation for his cancer.
The lady of the house is a petite women with a smoker's laugh and a too husky for her size voice. She is commonly uncommon and easy to miss. I shamefully avoid eye contact at all costs as what could I possibly have in common with this woman? Very few occasions am I able to get my super human senses and abilities up to par and dismiss her completely...as my face flashes a smile and deceives my desire for aloofness. At those times I find myself in a meet and greet upon the invisible line that divides our yards. I nod when appropriate, laugh when appropriate and do a pretty convincing job of acting engaged in our 'conversation'. Attempting not to judge this woman of such small statue in her over sized flannel shirts, I all the while am taking barely noticeable steps back to the eventual safety and normalcy of my own house.
When I have accomplished leaving the chatty woman without appearing rude or disinterested, I am overcome with a shamefulness. Why I wonder, as I sit and log in to my online networking site, am I so quick to dismiss this woman, her husband and their awful cluttered yard ? Hmmm...I give it little thought as I respond to the pile up of messages awaiting me from my 'friends' Over 20 messages I have?!?!? It will take eons to answer them all....had I have come in sooner I would have had more time to properly respond and approve my 'friend' requests. So many friends so little time. These friends only have on average, 2 smiles each, 3 facial expressions of any variance as that is all the pictures on their profiles allow me to see. Out of 137 friends (and growing!)I estimate approximately 4 of them to be people I have physically met and conversed with outside of these cyber walls. I type, type type away getting to know people who I will most likely never meet and will surely never really know. Why this is so crucial to my very existence I am not certain. Yet it is. I live and breath for the life I am open to living with no barriers other than a low battery. How could I trade that for real life? When I am sick no one can see that...only a picture plastered for all to see, if any one were to care to look. No one can see that I am rolling my eyes as they done on about the latest and the oldest.
Yes, I admit, there is no real rhyme or reason to my(our) cyber life's and addictions but could that be the true appeal of it all? Don't we find glamour in what we can not touch, taste or even get a small whiff of? If I understood it, what would then peak my interets? Is it not easier to say and describe who you want to be than to actually be who you really are? When,if and before I come to terms with this I still know that if my neighbors who I can not take the time to know or care for can find the time to know and care for me, I have to learn to unplg and go live.
No comments:
Post a Comment