The pictures weren't anything vulgar or what a boss would consider scandalous. They were just a handful of pictures back from my old clubbing days...so I wore a lot of black. What can I say?!? Black's a color, also :)
Shortly after this posting I realized a friend of mine - a colleague I'd academically competed with in college - removed herself from my friends list, and even blocked me! Wow! Very painful, it was.
I had always known she was incredibly conservative. She'd always say things like, "I just don't belong here, everyone so liberal!" Her husband, you see, was a Marine, and she was from a small town near San Diego.
This brings me to something of an unsolved mystery; something that is misused; something misinterpreted; something most of the time is misunderstood. A definition us folks like to call - "friend".
Ask yourself - how many friends DO you really have? But before you answer, think past those places I like to call "collection sites" such as Facebook, Myspace and Friendster.
Now cross out all those you see on a weekly basis in the local coffee shops, bars and clubs - the "frequenters," I call 'em. Really? Who's left? And are they your drinking buddies? How many of these - friends you say that are left - you spent time with in a museum or at a play?
If think along the lines of acquaintances, I bet it's long and winding. A friend is far and few between.
You see, I thought she was my friend. I mean, we knew each for years and had many discussions at school. But when I really began to think about it, after graduation, our discussions were ALWAYS on Facebook.
Guess I bought into the illusion - a friend on Facebook doesn't necessarily make them a friend. My bad!
So now I ask you, and myself - what's up with all the acquaintances? I'll admit it, I've gotten carried away with the social networking sites. I lived a lot of places so its been real convenient. When I was in school and holding a job, I only had some much time to spare.
All this brings me to this - is it really that we just don't have the time to invest or devote to another; and, if this is true, for some of you - like it was once for me - why are we so let down when someone else cannot give the same to us?
Don't lie - your human! Emotions are something, no matter how hard you try, will not wither up away and die.
I know what you're thinking - so what; who cares! It is what it is! But sometimes, I can't help but wonder if all this "acquainting" spills into our nationwide rising divorce rate of 50%. Pretty embarrassing I think. This issue we're speaking of is how we communicate with we each other, right?
And it gets even worse - 67% that try at marriage again will fail, and 74% will fail at a third try: "according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri."
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans," John Lennon once said. So what happens when you're not busy anymore?
Or are we too scared to slow down and see the error of our ways?
Making the wrong friends and getting into the wrong relationships because it was quick and didn't demand a lot of our time.
But in the end, my friend - time is all we'll have.
Time has become a phenomenon that's defining our lives in this age of instant gratification.
Simply stated, there is none.
So we've become, frankly, lucky to get what we can get, right?
We need to reconnect in this age that feels the need to travel faster than the speed of light. We've become sociopaths; collectors - friends that are never there; marriages that are failing; children with homes and no parents; so much stuff we can't really afford yet buy and never use.
...they're all distractions; a collection of distractions.
So now, I'll end this rather long - hopefully triggering - rant with some wise words by Will Rodgers, who said, "half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."
What will you do with yours?
Work on it now; collect wisely :)
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