Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Concept of "Growing Up"

It's funny, now that I look back on life, I realize what an unfair question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was for the young me. It presupposed that we cannot be what we already are.
The world asks you what you want to be, then tells you what not to be.
I guess what that question really implies is a preconditioning of sorts. Followed by several clouded judgments on your initial instinct.
 What the world really means by that question is:
1) Are you going to do what we expect of you?
2) and is it acceptable enough (brag worthy to the rest of the community)?

Some are strong and will persevere through the unholistic wordsmiths. 
Others will sadly fall under their spider web.
I wonder how many Picassos and Nietsches of our time that we have lost in this battle...



Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Disposable Generation

I recently discovered that we now live disposable lives.

Yesterday I went to the park to clean my mind.
After 30 minutes, I found my favourite bench and ran off to it, for it has the perfect view of the soccer team yelling away, the swings, the dogs, the runners. It's exceptional.
A few minutes later, an elderly couple sat next to me and they held hands. We started talking and I asked them how long they've been together. They said : it'll be 60 years next month! 

I was floored.
When I asked them how they managed, she replied with : Generations, dear, generations. We were fortunate to be born in a time where when something was broken you fought hard to fix it. Not just throw it out like disposable batteries.

That concept really stuck with me. 

Fighting through struggle.
Over the next few hours, I began to reflect on the generations...trying to pin point the exact moment where we started to become this "disposable" generation.
Not a particular moment in time connected with me, mainly because I am certain that this has formed within a few generations. 
The link? Technology.

The more attached we have become to being wired, the more detached we have become with ourselves. We've lost our sense of nature, our sense of touch.
The only "touch" we refer to is on our iPads.
We throw away anything that has a crack in it, because we always want to have the latest and flashiest, to impress people we don't like, with money we usually don't have.



Is this the life?
Is this what we have made of life?
How have we gone from Gandhi and Percy Shelley to video camera phones and morally grey reality tv shows as forms of education?




XtG