Stray

 Don't know if it is just me but I do find that many young people, on the social media at least, sound either pessimistic or gung ho. Extremes but in both cases, like copies. Imitation. Possibly, those who are at work, the kind which gives meaning to their life, are not on social media. 

That said, I myself spend hours scrolling nothing of interest. But then I think, if I had something of interest I would be productively engaged with the object of my interest. If I had found anything to draw me in, I would not be scrolling so much of meaningless stuff! 

Everyone seems to want to write or post images which are sensational. The singular purpose is to grab attention. Create sensation. Even poems are like versions of prose, written linearly, one line beneath another. Deep thought, yes, but when you decide to let loose thought, there's no end to the depth. Mind is a bottomless pit. You concoct up phrases with combinations of planned, deliberate words, you end up putting on make up to conceal, not reveal your soul. I may be old fashioned, yet I know that in the context of building a character in a play,  courage is in your ability to dig deep within to come up with not the descriptive picture of the character as written by the playwright but to interpret the description in your own terms. There is dignity in the effort, even if it fails. You make the damned thing uniquely yours, wrap your soul around it, bring it to life, make the character breath air through you. 

I have lost myself on occasions. When your work grabs you and guides you in its citadel, showing you its old walls, the moss, its secret chambers, you lose your separate identity, you become those things you are looking at. That's rare. And when you return to your normal -ness, to the person you ordinarily are and have always been,with a name and an identity you own, the weight returns. Then you wonder what just happened. It is so delightful that you want to do it again. Alas, it is rare to lose yourself! There is this losing and there is that losing, on social media, scrolling away to waste precious time. 





   


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