I feel like I used to write a lot more. Not just publicly, but also personally. Journaling, random expression of life through words used to be a daily thing for me. Lately, sitting down and getting out what’s rattling around in my head seems less like therapy and more like adding to the bullshit already circulating in the universe.
It must have started with the social media explosion, everything we do broadcasted for all to see, and then came this soapbox phenomena. All of a sudden, our tiny sphere of influence just got a lot bigger and a lot smaller at the same time. We can scroll through different time zones and lives like we flip through Netflix shows. We look through snippets of days, brief stylized moments captured through a lens and filtered by pretty words and techy apps.
This makes us feel more connected than we are. There’s a false sense of understanding. It’s easily forgotten that you will never, ever know what someone is going through, how someone feels, what their lives are really like without actually jumping inside their brain. Even a face to face conversation is as truthful and transparent as each person decides to be.
We have actually become more disconnected, I think. Maybe even a little arrogant, definitely ignorant. I’m not innocent of any of this. None of us are. I’m not even sure why I’m writing this. Maybe it’s because I believe in the power of words and pen to paper. I don’t know. It would be nice if these words could give you pause, make you take look at yourself and how you communicate. Are you sitting up on a high horse, looking for praise for existing, looking through a lens? Or are you doing the work in your tiny sphere causing positive ripple effects to pulsate into the universe? Are you assuming and running your mouth? Or are you asking questions and listening to the answers? Just writing this is a reminder for myself.
We all have the amazing right to our opinions and hell, we even have the right to voice them. This is so very important and I feel lucky I live in a place where we can have those rights. So, I can’t stop you from making a billboard in little squares about how you feel about this or that, but maybe, I can be a little reminder just before your hit post. Everyone has turned into an expert about everything. I think it’s better to be a student; constantly growing and evolving. Being a student gives you the freedom to raise your hand and ask – change your mind, get it wrong, and try it again.
Oh and if you’re reading this and you’ve had the thought that whatever you have to offer is already offered enough in this world, fuck that. Do it anyway. You are uniquely you and so whatever you’re doing will be uniquely yours.
Totally easier to type than to put into actual practice. (Obviously, I stopped writing for a bit.)
If you wanna write, write. If you wanna fight, fight. If you wanna run an underwater basket weaving business, do it. The doing is better than the not doing, usually. But don’t think for a second that because you’re “doing something” that makes you better than anyone else. Remember my first point, you literally have no idea why something else isn’t doing what you are or what you think they should be doing.
Stay in your lane, friend. Do your work. Be curious. Be adventurous.
And if you’re asking questions, listen to the answers.
**Just ask more questions in general. Have conversations. Get to know someone. Leave your heart out there. Our time here is fleeting, get out of your little squares and stop scrolling so much.
Jai Dee 