If you were really hungry, in fact starving, and finally found some food, like a piece of homemade pie, it would taste exquisitely good, almost painfully pleasurable on your palette. You would eat it slowly, savoring every morsel and really enjoying the slow, methodical, act of eating. If however, you had a friend with you who also had been starving, and they were enjoying the pie as well, you would enjoy the moment even more.
We are curious monkeys, us humans, we need society. It has been documented; a baby monkey if it cannot touch other monkeys, nor have contact with others, will die. Humans when isolated, possibly on a deserted island like Daniel Defoe, will go to extraordinary lengths, risking their very lives, to rejoin the human fold. It almost seems if we cannot share what we see, do and feel, then it hasn’t really happened, like the tree falling silently in the forest. If other human beings cannot acknowledge our experiences I am not sure they matter all that much.
I am thinking of what is important in life’s long luscious journey in terms of accomplishments, goals and dreams. If I run the fastest time ever in the 100 yard dash and no one else bears witness to it, does it count for anything? My most beautiful photo if unseen is just paper, or code. Even if we see something, somewhere, at some time, which truly astounds us doesn’t it tarnish it to be alone? Don’t we often kind of look around, to see if someone, anyone, is there to catch our momentary eye contact, to share in our human hubris of emotion and wowed wonder.
The movie “Into the Wild” explores John Krakauer’s true story of a young man who travels widely, and experiences much beauty and theatric thrills, to die alone, never having really shared it with anyone. It was very sad and in many ways a wasted, wistful life. I think of this now because a friend of mine is traveling alone and seeing many splendid sights he wants to share through the internet. It reminds me of the frustration when I have been in similar situations.
I think this is the cause of such a rapid rise in the various social media networks currently available. If people buy a new phone or gizmo they want to share how it works; and their feelings and viewpoints, in an instant digital reflection similar to writing in a diary or journal, but for the world to see and share in. It is interesting to watch the evolution of new forms of human needs and connectedness.
Of course feedback is also very important, to know you are not alone and are not crazy to think and feel the way you do. Even if in your current location you find yourself having nothing in common with the local populace, if you can reach out somehow to the warm sustaining light stream of the digital world, you can snag a communication lifeline of thought; you can escape the vapid void.
Communication with another of the sublime, supreme moments of our lives seem to have a multiplier effect, like mixing drugs and alcohol. They help us enjoy and re-see, re-experience, things that have become familiar to us. The things new to both are understood better in a wider view, more facets are seen, and more information is taken in with more sets of eyes, which only makes sense.
I once read that people in this modern, mobile world do not have to necessarily be stuck with families that they are genetically tied to. They can pick and choose people who are important to them. If there is an abusive uncle who brings nothing positive into your life there may be a need to let that relationship go. On the other hand people now seem to be spawning digital families and forms of connectedness that were here-to-for impossible. Relationships and common stakeholders can be found in far flung spaces. Our meeting halls have become worldwide; our soap boxes have become broadcast towers, we don’t have to rely on the slick reporter to talk to the man in the street, we can get to know the man in the street ourselves.
I always tell people that the things in life that are truly important are relationships. The movie reel, deathbed memories thoughtfully fondled behind our eyes, as we pass away into the night, will not be of tallying things we owned, it will be memories of the good times we shared with others, people in our far flung families that we touch by type and people in the next room we hold in our arms.
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