Uncle Jack asked if I wanted to go downtown with him. I was still a few years away from my teen years and going downtown with him was always fun. I remember that he always had to dress to go out. No jeans or T-shirts, no sneakers or sandals. And definitely, no gym clothes. Uncle Jack always dressed smart, as they said back in the day. Dress slacks, a button shirt (sometimes a tie) and always a sport-coat and a hat. It was a different time. It was a time when people took pride in how they looked and how they held themselves in society.
It feels as if the world has gotten too crowded today. People have resorted to crawling into an imaginary box just large enough to reach that apple from the bin at the supermarket. Was it because we were socially isolated back then from the instant gratification of a cell phone and Facebook? I remember when I spent an entire day without knowing what my neighbors were up to or which political leader pissed off another.
If you watch people walking down the street (or even driving), their gaze is only a few feet ahead. In the case of driving, their focus is only what is directly in front of them (or their phone…). I think with all of the instant media and information, we lost an important part of our humanness, the ability of awareness of our surroundings and those around us. What has become important is the immediate moment, the next (presidential?) tweet, the constantly running Instagram or Facebook saga.
I offer a challenge to everyone reading. One day when you leave your house to go shopping or dare I say, go to work, leave your cell phone at home. Spend those few hours unhinged from the immediate information world so you can witness the immediate real world around you. It will be harder than you think. Just take a deep breath, breathe out slowly and open your eyes to more than the three feet in front of you.
The Journey of a thousand miles 