My husband will tell you I have this REALLY annoying habit. I ask him how his day was...and then when he doesn't answer within 3 seconds I continue to talk, essentially telling him how my day was. Have I mentioned he is an incredibly tolerant man???
I went to see a friend in the hospital today. Luckily, this is not something I often have the chance to do - but even when I do I hesitate to go. I am that person who thinks I should help "distract" the patient from their woes. So, I usually end up doing all the talking. And its's usually about me.
I love Facebook - I know stuff about people that I would not other wise know, especially folks who are far away. Even stupid stuff. Seemingly unimportant stuff. But, that's what I like about it. People talk about themselves to other people. Frankly, isn't that the whole point of a status update? Letting everyone know about you?
Do you sense a trend? Here's a shocker: We are a totally self-absorbed society. I would have liked to think I was immune from this. My current medical woes have only highlighted how I have been sucked in like every body else. I will talk about it to anyone who wants to sympathize with me. How did we get here?
I don't think we do it intentionally. We relate to others by common experience - so we try to find something in our world that helps us relate to someone else's world. We are creatures of our environment. And our environment has gotten increasingly complicated. Frankly, there is a lot to keep track of, and most times we can barely keep up with our own little world, let alone what someone else is going through.
But we need to. We need to care about what others are going through. Or, at least I'd like to think we do to remain a humane and civil society. Which means we need to ask..and we need to allow time to listen to the answer.
SO, I am going to try a little experiment. It was an idea I read somewhere. A 24-hour Sabbath from MYSELF. I'll admit, I have tried it before and failed. No status updates on Facebook. No going on about ME. And every conversation would start: but how are YOU doin'?
We'll see how it goes this time. But I am not sure I am allowed to tell you - cause then it would be about ME!
