In the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette, there is a song entitled Too Many Rings Around Rosie Will Never Get Rosie A Ring. Its wisdom is the brooch of a brief rant I'd like to fasten to your collective bosoms.
There is definitely too much talking going on. The air is thick with useless signaling. The sidewalks teem with folks who are practically blindfolded by their endless chat. As far as the eye can see, it's Verizon of the Living Dead, bumping into traffic.
We have all come to understand the addictions of meth and alcohol and carbohydrates and even sex which is the trendiest door to Betty Ford, but are we ready to admit to an addiction to connectivity? Are we ready to stop exhausting ourselves building vast and worthless networks of "friends and family"? Are we ready to start blocking friends, family and strangers whose words fill our heads ceaselessly in the course of a day not with wisdom but with everything else? Are you ready to admit how unattractive you are to a potential lover because you have become unskilled at expressing deep and well-formulated thoughts and emotions? Are we ready to face the fact that we have become our own self-inflicted sound bites? Have you noticed yet that your communication devices have become personal external hard drives that no longer assist your brain but rather replace it with limited functions that are much less elegant?
Are you ready to shut up and seek refuge from noise for a portion of your day? If I were to ask you to describe the aim of your life, could you do it? I've taken some time to formulate a response to that question. My name is Tony. I want to be a great lover and I want to find out why we exist. Who are you? If you tell me that your name is Rosie and that you are close to hitting the five thousand maximum number of Facebook friends, I think you've got a problem.
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5 Comments
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As usual, Mr. FT, you are spot.
I think I'm going to go bake some bread.
kitchenbeard | July 30, 2009 7:45 PM
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Thanks Tony,
I immediately thought of how after a retreat at Gethsemane KY I got in my car and reflexively turned on the radio after five days of perfect silence and trail walks through the woods. I turned the radio off, almost immediately. It was too annoying.
It is almost impossible to imagine people not requiring a radio, DVD, television, video game, or internet just to cope. And they wonder why they sleep so poorly?
The one facet of Buddhism I love is the enforcement of silence a portion of the day in their lives, the need to meditate.
Robert Ganshorn | July 30, 2009 10:27 PM
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My name is Mike, and I am an emerging artist. I want to become an influential, revolutionary artist and replace all bigotry and injustice in the world with love and integrity.
:)
Mike | July 31, 2009 11:03 AM
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Mike, at the end of your days, when you look back on all you did and did not accomplish, you'll be at peace because you had a plan and plowed through the nonsense to get there. The measure of success is insignificant. To have taken aim and used yourself up for a purpose rather than for a set of diversions.
Father Tony | July 31, 2009 11:36 AM
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I turn the radio off as soon as the family leaves for work. Here in Phoenix, there is something always running (AC, fridge, neighbors' ACs...), so it is nice to have some bit of quiet to breathe by.
ksandweg | July 31, 2009 12:16 PM
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