Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Rat Race Is Calling

I hope everyone is enjoying their own version of a Happy Holidays. It has been stated many times in the past by many people that we are all in the rat race of life. We all trudge along on our own personal hamster wheels spending our days and nights trying to maintain our balance. If you happen to change jobs, in reality, you are just jumping onto a new hamster wheel. I suppose the best that we can hope for is to find that particular wheel that suits each of our own personalities and desires with the best fit. In a more perfect world, we would all be happy with our positions in life but too many people are never happy with were they are. Advertizers have convinced most of us that we all need the newest widgit for us to have a happy and fulfilling life. In most cases, this is bullshit. All you really need is yourself and enough clothing and money to be protected from the elements and starvation. If you are fortunate to have a family around you then in most cases you really do have all you need. Don't let the rat race and technology run your life.


I was at work last night and had a group of six women come in and spent the better part of several hours in my busines. During this time, even though there were more than enough people present to have several rounds of rousing conversation, these six women never let more than a four or five minute period of time go by without the necessity of text messaging someone or calling someone, usually with no other purpose than to see what they were doing. Are people really that fucking nosey or are they so insecure that they can not stand the thought of someone doing something or being somewhere that might be more exciting than what they themselves are currently doing. At one point they even joked about how did they ever get by before the advent of cellphones and text messaging. Do we really need to stay in this tight of a correspondence loop with everyone we know. I doubt it. The existence of the free world really does not hang in the balance. Later in the evening, after 1 AM, to be exact, three other customers all came in wearing their Star Trek-like Blue Tooth cell phones in their ears because apartently they are all so important that they need to be in constant contact with fan base but still need both hands free for drinking. At least they have their drinking priorities straight. I can appreciate that.



I predict that within the next couple years that there will be another back to the earth revolution. I think that some people will hopefully realize that they still control their own lives, technology does't. They will discover that they have become captives of a technological world and retake control of their own lives. Heaven to me has become the time when I go out to the country and walk for hours with no phone calls or text messages. No one to bother me and my wife in our all too brief commune with nature. Maybe my wife and I are the strange ones but neither of us desire to be in constant communication with the rest of the world. As the author of this blog, it is obvious that I enjoy technology but I hopefully keep it in its' place and I control it rather than it controlling me. Try regaining your life. Try turning off your cell phone for fifteen minutes once a day. I know it will be hard to do at first but it is a good starting point, and by the way, when you are out with your friends, try paying a little more attention to them and less to your cell phone, it is the polite thing to do. Have a great year filled with peace and love.

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