The Simple Pleasures

To say that the nature of life in this epoch is tumultuous and chaotic is certainly not altogether inappropriate. While out and about grocery shopping, driving or having dinner with a friend, one can hear the whistles and bells of the Blackberry; one can see the manner in which humanity continually disconnects itself from within. The internet has brought about a social revolution, this cannot be denied. Skype, Facebook, Twitter and smart-phones have all made made the ordeal of maintaining contact with someone much less painful and much less of a hassle. Needless to say, the days of hand written letters have seen their last sunset. Now, one simply needs an internet connection and a few spare moments of time in order to “talk” to someone. But, does all of this come at a cost?

Does the fact that it is so very easy to maintain these relationships without actually having to know someone or without actually having to interact with someone in the same room, make the connections that we maintain less important and less realistic? I would say that they do. But, I digress. What I really want to talk about is how this social revolution brought about by the dawn of the “inter-web” has made us lose ourselves in the hustle and bustle of daily life in the 21st century. Call me old-fashioned, but, I still find pleasure in the simple things of life – sometimes, the incredibly simple things of life. I don’t need the latest apps on my phone, cool little games that fling bird-bombs across my screen at pigs huddling in a fortress built of Lincoln Logs, or the ability to go onto the internet and check my email every moment of every day.

Nope, give me a Peggy Lee or Felonious Monk CD (yes, I said CD) on a sunny Sunday afternoon… an open window with a view and a cup of tea and I am happy man. Give me a good book – give me a lovely walk on a fall afternoon. When I tell people what I enjoy doing I often elicit an odd, blank stare followed by, “That’s boring” or “What’s a CD?” It seems to me that people have forgotten how to appreciate the simple things in life, and I think it is because they are so very caught up in maintaining their social lives as they exist on the internet. It’s sad really. Real friendships and relationships are hard to come by these days because of the increasingly disconnected way in which we interact with one another.

I am not saying that I do not text, or that I don’t have a Facebook account and don’t talk to people on Skype – because I do all of those things. However, the difference between myself and most people seems to be that I haven’t forgotten what really matters and I haven’t lost the ability to enjoy these “simple pleasures.”

Do yourself a favor and go downtown to a local coffee shop and people-watch; go out for a walk and enjoy being alive, and don’t forget that life doesn’t happen on Twitter or Facebook. Life is out there… in the wild, messy and wonderful thing we call society. Go make a new friend, a real one, and not someone with a profile picture and screen name. I promise, it’s not that hard or painful. Life doesn’t have a connection rating, people.

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