There. I warned you.
Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays (Have I said that already?). I like the Fourth of July because I get to blow stuff up. I like New Years because it marks a time for me to start over and start writing a new chapter of my life.
I really like Thanksgiving because it's a time for me to reflect on what I'm thankful for... and to conceive another food baby.
Yes, I know I said pretty much the exact same thing in my post earlier this week. I'm not going to repeat myself and talk about how thankful I am for the things I'm lucky enough to have in my life.
I actually want to talk about the antithesis of Thanksgiving... Black Friday. I'm kidding... well, not really. Black Friday is arguably the antithesis of Thanksgiving. I mean... you spend a whole day being thankful and then not even 24 hours later you're out buying more stuff that you're probably not going to mention 364 days from now when it's time to stuff your face again.
I really want to talk about the antithesis to the concept of Thanksgiving: taking things for granted.
I think it's safe to say that everyone and their mother has taken something for granted before. It's practically the unwritten American way.
I personally take the fact that I have the freedom to write all of this down for granted, because not everyone is at the liberty to say whatever they want.
I think one thing that a large portion of people take for granted though is other people.
Take a minute to think. Is there a person in your life that you are close to or used to be close to? Do you talk to that person often? If not, why?
There could be an endless reasons why, I suppose. Distance. Lack of time. It may not even cross your mind.
I think that's the problem, though. We, as humans, are very social creatures capable of forming deep and intimate bonds with others.
Yet at the same time I think we too easily neglect the bonds that we once so gently fostered.
Why do two best friends just stop talking? When there was no fight, no falling out? Why do we let life so often get in the way? Something as trivial as school or work shouldn't get in the way of something as significant as friendship. I don't talk to my best friend every day. Do I wish I did? Oh hell yeah. And it shouldn't be that difficult.
A lot of people say that today's technology inhibits social interaction. They say that it's not as "real" as face to face conversation. They might be right. But when face to face conversation isn't always an available option wouldn't it be better to fall back on " less real" interaction with important people than to just not interact with them at all?
In this day and age it's so easy to pick up your phone and tell someone "Hey, bud, have a great day." Boom. Easy. If the conversation progresses from there then great. Converse. If they reply back with "Thanks, you too!" then at least you interacted with them, and chances are you don't make someone's day worse by wishing them a good day. Ya know?
It confuses me, really, how willingly people let their connections with other falter and eventually become severed.
It just kind of seems like a lot of time was wasted, ya know?
No comments:
Post a Comment