We have More In common than we have Apart. don't take it for granted!

So I am a hedonist and a narcissist, I now realize.  But I don't entirely feel guilty.  Because I've been told or overheard a truth about this.  To be a hedonist and a narcissist in this modern age of those prevalent trends... is entirely natural.

To catch up, a hedonist is someone who endlessly indulges in the seemingly bottomless "guilty pleasures" of this world, indulgence of the senses.  Perhaps in a superficial way.  Engaging in experiences without learning their meaning.  Their importance.  Along with this comes narcissism, which is an experience of being the only one.  It is lonely by comparison; but if that is all you know, you are maybe just missing out on some of the most rewarding experiences of being alive, being socially connected!  We humans are, after all, social animals.  Even if you may be an introvert, like me, or you spend more time in books and movies and music and on the internet...

To that point.  To be a narcissist in this age of narcissism, is entirely natural.  It means that we have come along ways in a lot of things, a lot of technology and culture... but in other things, we have lost some ground in the last 100 years.  At least in western culture, here in America, or to be sure, in my life here in Portland, OR, USA.  I have witnessed a lot of potential, with little advancements in the way of social...ism.  Sociality.  Being social!  I don't know.  The theory isn't that complicated really.

"a smile is a universal language" if someone smiles at you, you smile back.  Because we are human.

I could theorize more.  I like this quote I borrowed from Byung Chul Han, and again from Stephen West's philosophy podcast, which goes: "we used to have community without communication.  Now we have communication without community."

Social Media!!!

It's... not all that social?!  I mean - it is!  It just takes a leap of faith.

  What I want to say here most is this.  Becoming the social animals that we are meant to be... isn't a process of growth, per se.  It is an uncovering, a discovery.  We already have it.  Intimacy.  It is not an achievement.  It is a fact.  We for-reals for-reals have WAY MORE in common than we have apart.  We just do.  It's inarguable.  I could spend all day explaining that, and most of it would be so obvious, it wouldn't feel like an argument.  Just like revealing the truth of what reality is like these days.  Which, by the way, is one of my favorite things to do.  Lol.  Cuz truth is just a short essay away.  LOL.   : )

We have so much in common, but people are pulling quotes out of context, bulletins and comment chains are rife with trolls and goblins and weirdos to boot.  It's confusing, to see people with so much in common picking each other apart by the small hairs, acting like those are the important things.  What we have in common is what we take for granted, and that seems to be the rule.  Meanwhile, it is what is the most true!  And yet all kinds of persons, me included, ravenous hedonists and narcissists, search hungrily for what's new or different, and put behind them what's already experienced, puts that behind them as "old hat."  hangs it up on the rack, never to be retrieved again.  This is wrong, and wasteful, kinda sad... but easily remediable!

When did we fall into this strange spell of newness - only newness?  (Me included?  Or perhaps by "we" I mean "me" lol, ::uh-oh  blushy face:: )  After all, do we not sleep and re-awaken every day?  Do we not digest, get hungry, and then eat again?  Every meal?  Why should information and culture be any different?  If it's good the first time, it should be good the forty-first time!  ...and by recent evidence, it IS.

So.

This has been a kind reminder for me.  Thank you!  If you're from SLO, CA, look for the new "Proxima Parada" album coming out in a week or two.  (I'm a fan; they're great guys) If you're from anywhere, I just found out that Coldplay's "Head Full of Dreams" (2015) is one of my all time favorites.  Don't know how that passed me by these lasts 10 years.  

Happy Scrolling!!! Don't forget to remember what you've taken for granted, re-awaken all that is behind you, and remember that it is a part of you.  The past isn't through with you!  Your past is a large part of who you are.  No matter who you are.  That much isn't a mystery.  Hey - don't think of it as work.  It is the best kind of play.  To re-awaken past lives and become the multiplicity you were destined to be.  WE were destined to be.  And feel free to tell me about it.

Hey, one more song quote.  Foo Fighters: "This is a call to all my... past resignations... it's been too long!"