What a title. Lame! Of course these are musings! It's a blog--the place online where people go to muse. Forgive me my inadequacies as far as titles go. The writing is bound to improve--it would have to, right?
Today was not so lame as I had expected. Classes went well. In ART 105 we watched a Bill Moyers documentary where an old man named Joseph Campbell talked about cave paintings and digressed into his opinions on the Catholic church and the denigration of society based on lack of rituals (just trust me when I say it was strange, awkward, and a perfect illustration of how the elderly can become judgmental and opinionated). In PSY 101, we talked about ADHD and the nervous system. We also did a few kind of fun activities. I feel like all the things we've talked about in PSY 101 so far are concept reviews that I've already delved into in other classes like Lifespan Psychology, Anatomy and Physiology--I and II--and even Statistics. However, I like my instructor, so I'm chalking it up to being okay.
The GSA meeting went well also. It was productive. There were plenty of people there. We had a fun time just sitting and chatting afterward. It was good! Plus, I had to revel in the irony that the advisor of an organization whose sole purpose is to promote tolerance among others told Nick and I to "try to hate." (As a general disclaimer and lest you think we do not serve our organizational purpose, I would like to tell you that this was in relation to a very specific and personal topic related to a specific person with whom Nick and I are both acquainted. Despite our best efforts, we are starting to like this person and neither of us seem to know how we feel about that. I want to hate him, but I seem to be unable to which is strange for me, as I am so very good at hating and holding grudges. I'm starting to feel that my open-mindedness is becoming a personal failure--haha, just kidding! I jest, I jest!)
Tonight, though, as I perused Facebook I came to realize something: there are people that I never thought I would fall away from that I don't even think about anymore. I know, this is not a shocking revelation to most people, but I was stopping to consider what that might mean for us. I mean, these are people that I considered some of my best friends, family even. As I chose to hide some of them from my news feed, I paused and thought, "Wow. I remember when I called these people on the regular just because. Now, I don't even want to see what they might possibly have to say in a two sentence status update? How sad is that!"
I suppose, more than anything, I find it slightly depressing. I know that people lose touch, move, make the conscious choice to stop talking, etc. It doesn't make it easier to face the reality that those people aren't important to you anymore or, more importantly if you're egotistical like me, that you're not important to those people anymore. It's the natural order, but sometimes it just hits you that the nature of society as we see it today is somewhat transitory--we expect people to come in and out of our lives. Can you imagine a time when you lived in a village and those people were the people that you had in your life for your whole life? Can you imagine what it would be like to have that kind of historical connection, human connection? I think we take for granted that that must have been a reality.
It's interesting to think that this world gets so impersonal. In an age when communication should be so much easier--what with the Internet, wireless phones, skype, etc--we seem to be growing further apart. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton kept their friendship alive for years based solely on their written correspondences--which, by the way, I'm sure moved much more slowly than they do today. Julia Child kept a pen pal while she lived in France who ended up helping her to publish her initial work, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Why is it that now, when communication is much much easier and faster than the methods of yesteryear, are we having problems communicating?
Maybe this is just me. Maybe these people really weren't my friends at all, and all of this is just the disappointment of a twenty-something woman who is becoming disillusioned with the loss of her childhood companions in favor of a new set of friends. Maybe it's really a mitzvah because I have better, more intelligent friends who are much more on my level than some of those old high school friends. It's a little early for me to tell. Mostly, I just find myself stunned that people can grow so far apart in an age where one needs only pick up a cell phone, engage in a chat, shoot of a quick text, or type out a fast e-mail to keep in touch. It should be so easy, but it's not. Why is that?
Does this bother anyone else?
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