Lonesome no more!
I've been thinking a lot lately about how detached we've all become. Anymore, a person can pretty much live most days without seeing another soul. Think about it. You can get movies in the mail, and food delivered to you. There's text messaging and email. Everything has become so automated and impersonal.
The other day I was reading a story on yahoo news about a woman in Wichita Kansas that got stabbed and was bleeding to death in the middle of a convenience store. Do you know what the other people in the store did? They walked over her and kept on shopping! One person even took a picture of her with their cellphone! What the hell is wrong with society? Have we become so desensitized that we don't even care when someone else is suffering? Or dying right before our very eyes? It used to be that people worked towards the betterment of their community. Now they only work toward whatever is the biggest payoff to themselves.
I went to go pick up a squirrel for nature's nursery from an elderly couple last month, and they talked my ears off. The woman told me that she had just turned 65. She told me about her daughter buying her first house in Kentucky. How she met her husband. About being in the service. I decided to listen and let the lady talk. Because she seemed so desperate for human interaction. Just someone to listen to what she had to say about life, and to share her thoughts with.
No matter how isolated you get, you still need people eventually. Sure, they drive you crazy sometimes, but I think everyone is hardwired to need other individuals that can relate to them in some way and share their ideas.
"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone."
-Kurt Vonnegut
Labels: diarrhea of the brain
posted by colonel eggroll @ 12:10 PM
7 Comments:
I read that story with horror, I keep thinking that maybe they left out a detail, like paramedics were there with her, because to think that people would literally step over a dying woman and not help is horrific.
I love my peace and quiet but I need my friends and family.
Good post Julia.
Yeah, my life is pretty isolated at the moment and I know what you mean. I love my privacy but I love hanging out as well.
Furthermore, I prefer to hang out with girls because they are better at it. I hate that masculine silence that some guys go on with.
"I think everyone is hardwired to need other individuals that can relate to them in some way and share their ideas."
So true. I enjoy my own company, and I have to have some place that can be just mine, but I've got to have people I can really talk to.
***
I agree with Mark. Silence has it's place, but not in hanging out. :) Not that there's much silence when I'm around people I like to hang out with.
Lucy-Thanks! I have been reading a lot of Vonnegut lately, and his thoughts on family really stayed with me.
Mark-I think I hang out with a relatively even amount of guys and girls. Although sometimes I prefer guys, just because there is less drama involved.
And I agree. Silence may be golden, but there is no place for it whilst hanging out.
Winter-Lol. yeah, you never shut up! :D
j/k.
Whatever. I have a plethora of interesting things to say on a variety of topics that I deliver in a witty and entertaining matter.
You're just jealous. :P
Last night a friend of mine - a single young woman who lives here in Philly and has to work a crappy office job instead of making her art just to keep afloat - called me up. She said she didn't have anything particular to say, but just needed to "reconnect with the real world" by talking to a friend.
Also, your comments on "Sicko" are pretty much what I've been hearing from people and in reviews. Maybe I'll talk the hubby into seeing it tonight.
You should definitely go see it! It is really quite good.
And good conversation with friends is always a nice way to get back in touch with the things that really matter.
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