It's a gorgeous summer day. Not
too hot, and plenty of sunshine and breeze. I go out to walk by my local bay. I
get the most precious feeling: peace, calm, happiness, and awe at the beauty of
my surroundings.
But even on the best of these
days, a much more unpleasant shadow somehow sneaks into my skull: that of
frustration and disappointment. I have this amazing experience... but there's
no one to share it with me.
I have just finished calling,
texting, or emailing a number of friends. I try to get together with some who
live quite far away in the city, but I can't. All have responses along these
lines: "Sorry, I have work" or "I have to run errands" or
"I have plans with other people today"...
I try my local friends. Sounds
reasonable, right? They live much closer, so I can just squeeze something in
very easily, even it's just a brief walk or something.
Not a chance. They're just as
busy.
And this situations are not
aberrations; they are as constant as change.
As upset as I get over this
reality, it morphs from a severe problem for me into a much more profound
social problem as I examine other people and talk to them. They're having just
as much, if not more, trouble getting to see their friends and loved ones as I
am.
Everywhere you look, people
are running around doing something. If they're not cramming in schoolwork,
they're working a job to support their family or build up their allowance, or
taking care of their kids, or something else very time-consuming and stressful.
It's like everyone has turned
into a bunch of monkeys on a diet of crack, caffeine, and sugar!
There are many people out there
who have it real bad, like many among the working poor. But as numerous
journalists and writers for blogs and op-ed sections note, there are also
plenty of people who find time to spend hours on Facebook or Twitter, watch
countless amounts of TV, and hang out again and again with the same people they
see fairly constantly. Yet for some reason they can't find time to read news,
go caroling at Christmas, or make time to see someone who wants to catch up
with them after a long period of little to no contact, regardless of physical
or emotional proximity.
Well, in that case, are we really
"too busy"? Or just incredibly unfocused?
And while I'm at it, consider
this: we, human beings all over the world, have a lot of extreme problems and
grievances that be directly traced back to the heart of our entire social
structure. Yet many claim they are "too busy" to do anything about
it...
Folks, let me pose a
question:
What do you think you're doing by
being continually "busy" and doing all that crap to
"survive" and "have a life"?
Answer: Supporting that social
structure! Feeding the beast that is mauling and killing you!
Every shift you work, every vote
you cast, every product you buy, every tax and bill you pay, every moment you
stay passive and obedient is just another deck chair you are re-arranging on
the Titanic.
You are continually holding up
and digging the tunnel leading you to the bottomless vortex of doom, when you
should be saying "Screw this!" and running the hell out away in the
opposite direction.
As Ghandi and Jiddu Krishnamurti
said, if you want change, you must work for it.
Want to change you life, and want
the world to support it?
Then stop being "too
busy"!!!
