This brilliant little piece of social commentary really resonated with me today.
(Please read that first, if you don’t mind. It’s short and very interesting. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…)
It’s been out there a while and you may have already seen it, but regardless, it says so much to and for me right now. Not just about FB, but life as many, including me, have come to know and operate within it.
Lately, as I’ve been observing life around me, and my role in it, I’ve come to increasingly feel like Solomon, or whoever it really was writing in Ecclesiastes: “Vanity. Everything is vanity. Pointless. Meaningless. Bullshit.” (King Dave version.)
Don’t misunderstand. It’s not just a cranky, eternally pessimistic rant. It’s social commentary. And, more importantly, self commentary. A yearning for life to be meaningful, less vain, sincere, and connected. Not to feel some imposed obligation to make life meaningful — As I’ve written before, our lives are already meaningful just because we exist — But to allow the meaning to shine through ourselves and others, instead of cluttering everything up with our bullshit.
And what exactly, do I mean by bullshit? Too many arguments and not enough listening. Too much posturing and not enough breathing. Too much striving to be included and not enough including others.
I’ve withdrawn a bit as this realization has continued to sink deeper into me. I just can’t handle much FB posting and similar things, and I’ve obviously tapered back on the blogging too. The withdrawal is partly out of frustration about how this is just how our world works, and partly because of a deep pull to reflect on the role I’ve been playing in it. So I’m not writing these things to make a point about society, because all this describes me.
So much of my life has been bullshit. I’ve been motivated by vanity. And things I felt that gave me so much meaning turned out to be meaningless, nothing more than struggles for recognition and a sense of value. This blog is no exception.
So please bear with me as I re-tool. Calibration in progress. This might take a while, and some things may change.
“things I felt that gave me so much meaning turned out to be meaningless, nothing more than struggles for recognition and a sense of value”…
This is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately – sorry I have no answers or words of wisdom to share but I do know that I’m going to try and cure what ails my soul by being more authentic and honest, looking inward rather than to others to find that elusive sense of value and trying to let go of the need for recognition. Just found this blog and look forward to reading more.
thanks for your comment, atalie. glad to hear we’re not alone in that thinking. i agree that looking inward more than outward definitely helps. it can be more difficult, but gives us healthier results in the long run. peace.
I resonate with what you are saying. In a coincidence of events, our modem broke. Which caused us to curse the idea of spending $100 or more on a new one (as we have our own because we don’t like renting things like that from the company). Which also caused us to examine the wisdom of paying $50 a month for internet in our home. Which caused us to think more closely about the capabilities of our cell phone plan as it stands already. As well as the free wireless internet available in all the public areas of our apartment (which starts a few feet from our front door, in the pool area).
the result? we cancelled our home internet. We use the internet capabilities built into our cell phones already. We use Jim’s cell phone as a wireless hotspot when we need to do something on our netbooks in our home. We take our netbooks to the poolside when we want to surf a little more.
and we are saving $50 a month, and have greatly decreased all those interactions like you talking about in this post.
we are so happy with this broken modem!
Thanks Tammy. I just added some more of my own thoughts since you commented. It still all ties together though. So interesting.
[...] Pointless. I’ve had similar thoughts about Facebook. While it can be a good way to keep in touch with family and friends who live far away there is also a fair amount of proselytization and arguing for the sake of arguing. On the bright side, it’s much easier to side step these issues online than it is in person! [...]