Silly games, stupid screens, stealing minds, sucking time…
Oh to be human, desires discussed among the flowers;
Anger tempered by a smirk, a smile softening rage,
People turning human, hearts melting, images loosing power.
Christopher Christopher (famous Russian poet)
I know what the problem is.
I have figured out how to stop all this trivial tribal nonsense; and by tribal I mean people forming sides politically, denominationally, racially and economically. Our obsession with nonsensical arguments, labeling and shaming is out of control.
We need to change course. We need to turn everything off. Here is what we need. . .
We need more fathers who lay down on the living room floor with their hands in their pockets, talking to their kids. I learned this from my dad. After dinner, he would grab a toothpick, a large couch pillow and lie down on the living room floor carpet and talk.
I don’t know why, but when my dad would lie on the carpet, that meant we would probably get into strange and wonderful discussions about anything and everything. I remember my sisters just laughing while my dad told stories, and even our neighbors and my high school friends would sit on the couch and tell my dad about their day.
Usually, the tv would be off, and we would just talk.
I can remember one time while my dad was lying on the floor, he looked at our fireplace and asked, “If you could paint a picture to put over the fireplace mantel, what would you paint?” I knew he asked it because he had an idea, so I asked him what he would paint, “Wouldn’t it be cool to paint a black Labrador Retriever standing next to a patch of cat-tails while lifting his leg to take a whiz?”
I can remember him asking my sister Gina about her friend Sue Greaser and how she got so good at gymnastics. Or he had my brother-in-law Jimmy explain his new monster snowblower that he called “The Unit.”
Invariably, after each discussion, we would be laughing, singing or just listening to him tell us stories about growing up in Cleveland.
This is the answer. Face-to-face human interaction. A modern-day rarity.
My sister Tam would have the strangest friends come over, many of them long-haired hippies and pot smokers. I’m sure some were liberal. I think some may have been gay? But he would invite them all to sit on the couch while he would lay on the carpet and ask them questions. Forget political talking points, he wanted to know the human story. My parents even had some friends that believed in Reincarnation come over – – Cleopatra herself sat on our couch talking to my dad!
Why do we think we can make life better by offering up our take on politics online, or make the culture better by boycotting things that really don’t matter like“Beauty and the Beast” or “Starbucks Coffee”? Who cares if Wikileaks has some more juicy info on the disgusting politician you will never meet in your life?
We have more opinions about things we can’t do a darn thing about, and few of us even know the family we are living in the same house with. We think we will change our world because we can out-argue some strange keyboard warrior hundreds of miles away, while we ignore the forgotten people in our own home.
Vote for your favorite politician, and then drop it. By following the news and hoping the FBI will find new evidence to cause the President to be impeached or the past President to be found guilty, you are doing nothing but chasing the wind. Who cares? Really, whoooooo cares?
Go lay down on your living room carpet and talk. Talk about your day. Talk about your childhood. Talk about God. Talk about your favorite candy. Talk about what painting you would paint to put on your wall.
I have found my penchant for political news has done virtually nothing for me. It has wasted a lot of my life while my kids have grown up like weeds around me.
Last week our family watched some family videos. What happened to the time? Seriously, where did it go? My daughter was dancing to Cinderella and now she is married and gone. I thank God we had many talks while I laid on the carpet, or on her bedroom floor, or on the grass in the backyard. I would give anything to have a few of those days back. There will always be a chance to hate the next attorney general, but not many to talk to your son about how to stretch for track practice.
Lie down and watch the clock tick just a bit slower. I think when you lie down it says, “I am not going anywhere and I am ready to listen.”
Try it….you may like it?
