On running and thinking...

5.12.11

I started a list. From no-where. Half way through a half baked trot around the marina. On what I think might be awry with the world. Thought I'd share some....

1.  Listen. Moi?. No-one really seems to listen anymore. So neither do they hear. Listening used to be an art. The world we live in now, is a cacophony. The more we tune in, the less we listen, and the less we hear. And so its no wonder I guess that those who innovate to be heard, are thriving. 

2.  Conversation is yesterdays black. When did dialogue return to sharing symbols? The Yellow pages commercial of 1980 cleverly instructed us to “let your fingers do the talking (or was it walking?)”. Either way, little did they know they’d coined a troubling prophecy. We need to ‘talk’ more. To talk you have to listen. Better still, you have to listen and look at the same time. Which brought me to...

3.  ...the trouble with eyes. When did extended eye contact become a) weird b) threatening or c) flirtatious? I love the eyes. By far the most magical and beautiful part of our anatomy, yet I've noticed how few people really look at one another anymore when talking.  We'd rather stare at the perspex screen of our i-stuff, or into the shadows of our modern insecurities (ooh, topical!).

4.  The collapse of time. Physicists  suggest it actually could be. Is a minute now atomically shorter than a minute then? Intuitively we seem to be aware that it might, and so ferociously invent technology and apps and means and ways of cramming more and more into a minute. Stop multitasking and trying to combat the acceleration of existence! It doesn’t and will never matter how much you do in time. It’s about what you do with time that can really make a difference.

5. Where did Culture go? Words that end in ‘–ics’ have all but diluted the once powerfully enchanting cool aid of real culture.  So much so that we call culturally erudite people ‘vultures!’ It’s a cherishable irony that the men and women of this world, who remain most grounded in there love for the delicate sinews of our diversity, are reframed as carrion seeking monsters. I guess it’s accurate in a certain sense; deeply tragic in another.

I didn’t particularly enjoy this run.