I sometimes find it difficult to live up to expectations that I have for my life at times. Thanks to a cacophony of fictional/non-fictional tales (whether they are from books or movies) I've become a little too used to see people lives unfold in front of me in a very short time. As in depth as the book/movie might be, in comparison to your everyday life they are just one thing: a montage.
It feels like it's getting dangerous to let myself get caught up in these worlds. You're always scared by the media that the violence and drugs are something you need to look out for and protect yourself from, but no one ever seems to think about this obsession we have with stories. Yes, yes, people are always whining saying TV rots the mind etc. but very rarely do they accept that so do books.
Story telling is a huge aspect of mankind. Dating thousands of years ago there are cave paintings of our “primitive” ancestors attempting to tell stories. We communicate with each other in such a dextrous and complex manner in this day and age simply because our mind yearned to unleash a creative side tens of thousands of years ago. If we only used communication to say what we needed, then we wouldn't have such a diverse and numerous vocabulary today – but we learned to communicate to say what we wanted. And we wanted entertainment. There was only so much, hunting, humping, eating, sleeping and crafting tools and jewelery we could deal with – our minds craved the thrill of a tale.
So you see, something as simple as a story is what helped contribute us to be such eloquent speakers with a mind capable of explaining complex and abstract issues with clarity. But back then, stories weren't easy to come by. Like a fire, if it's small and controlled it adds dimensions to our life, but too much of it is certainly dangerous. Today, there is an overwhelming choice of entertainment at our disposal. It's almost as if you have to judge a book by it's cover, because you don't have the time to read the synopses of all these thousands of books out there. I say this is dangerous because our minds aren't supposed to be overwhelmed in such a fashion. Life isn't supposed to go by at 100mph all the time. It's not like a book, “This happens, that happens, consequences, lessons learnt, the end.” We're supposed to take a break from all this. From day one, we are supposed to have days where we're bored out of our minds; we're supposed to sit and think about things, life, friends, family, issues in your life and whatever else is pressing on your mind; you're meant to have days when everything is dull and slow, it gives you time to process your life.
I blame the entertainment industry for my uneasiness. I blame them when on a day off I feel edgy when I haven't done anything. I blame them when I think at 28 I should have experienced more or I should have had more adventures. I blame myself for falling into their trap.
So whatever you're doing think about taking a digital detox. 1 night a week or a fortnight. Don't bother with what you're friends are up to on Facebook; don't pay attention to whoever is crying or having sex on TV; ignore the pretentious author sitting on your bookshelf. Just take in the life you have around you. Go people-watch in town; go stare at the stars at night; go watch the waves lap in at the shore; go exercise and forget everything for a bit; or just go and sit still with your eyes closed in your bedroom.
I'm making my vow to do this from now on: to not get anxious if I don't do anything with my day or my evening; to sort out myself and my life logically and to leave the constant entertainment alone for a while.
There's more to life than living. As paradoxical as that sounds.
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