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| Navigational Art by Colleen Yorke, 2015. |
Our generation lives for the instant gratification, we need to "know" things with the tap of a few letters, and often the first webpage on our smart phones will do, we are satisfied. For the moment. This goes hand in hand with medication and alcohol: These substances exponentially intensify the illusion of an alternate reality. And we like to have things our way, always. We reach for stars, and we go out and get them. (Maybe that is why many of us like running so much. It is a sport that stretches our limits: First, we run a mile, then two, then five, then 10, and before we know it, we are out there collecting "blings" for half- and marathons.) But, when we become too focused on our goals, we tend to lose focus on many other things in our lives. And it hits the people we love the most the hardest.
Having goals and pursuing them is important, but we must not lose sight of the things and individuals in our lives that matter, and recognize those that do not. As Susan Sarandon beautifully put it in the movie Shall We Dance:
We need a witness to our lives. There are nine billion people on the
planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But ... you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad
things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the
time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because
I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be
your witness'."
Take time to slow down, put down the phone, smell the roses, and tell someone you love them.
