Rip
The above title panel is an illustration from my children’s book, The Snowman Who Killed Winter.*
In my previous post, I asked readers for recommendations of books that changed their lives regarding existential and spiritual matters and I got a LOT of terrific suggestions both in the comments and in private messages. Thanks to all who left suggestions!
Though the cartoon above about the funny pages was submitted weeks ago and the following topic only just came up recently, they are connected in a way.
A couple of days ago, there was an article in the New York Times about a study that showed how unhappy email makes us. I didn’t read the article, of course; I’m too far behind on email to read more than headlines, which was perhaps the point of the article. Who knows? But I did do a little thinking on the topic, which is one I’ve bounced around inside my mental medicine-ball court for years.
Let’s start here: We evolved in small groups and villages. For millions of years, the average person knew perhaps 100 individuals in their entire life and only saw a stranger when someone in the village had a baby.
Now we’re here: We are instantly & constantly connected to the estimated 4.66 billion people who use the Internet worldwide, and most of them want something from us. Today. Even 30 years ago, if you got a couple of personal letters each week from friends, that was a lot. A business person might answer a couple letters a day. And volleying letters back and forth was a days-long process. A conversation could take two weeks, so we did most of that by phone. But not anymore.
How do those numbers compare to our lives now? How many emails and texts do you get each day—from friends or business people—and how many require a response? And how much time goes by before it seems rude that you’ve not responded yet? I cringe to think of how much of the average person’s life each and every day is spent typing uninspired thoughts and facts to each other. We don’t live life as much as we stab at life with our thumbs.
But let this sink in: How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.
No wonder emails get shorter and less courteous all the time. These days, I don’t dare ask anyone more than one question in an email because I know they will only read and answer the first one. In fact, it seems most people don’t read emails, they scan. And who can blame us? We want our lives back.
The rare person who is caught up enough on their email to have read this far might now reasonably ask, Why then, Mr. Iwantmylifeback, do you subject us to such long blog posts each week?
An excellent question, Ms. Allcaughtuponmyemaillikesomekindofteacherspet, and one that I am thinking about now as I prepare to type the next sentence.
(3 hours later)
Because it isn’t time spent reading and writing that makes us unhappy and has stolen our lives, it is being a 24/7 slave to the trivial tasks and requests of this meaningless game of “civilization” that we’re playing.
We are creative, soulful, intelligent creatures who should be tending to important matters of the heart and soul and mind, not spending our days selling things to each other. We should be writing songs instead of product reviews, painting pictures instead of posing for selfies, and sharing with each other things that matter or amuse or provoke thought, instead of sharing our location at the mall.
So all I’m saying is if you feel like life is a little (or a lot) hollow, you might try giving up a big chunk of the time you spend on email and social media and doing something with your heart and soul and mind. You might be amazed at what it feels like to be alive again.
But before you get reanimated by an art project or dust off your old harmonica, let’s share some chuckles at Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from the week…
Now if he can figure out how to make it out of bread dough and fry it, civilization can begin.
We can put a robot on Mars but we can’t get a pizza bagel the size of a car tire delivered to our front door?
I don’t want to frighten or depress you but there are humans in Vegas who do nothing but play slot machines for hours every day. This may be happening elsewhere, too.
In case you’re wondering how my ongoing saga of replacing my broken drawing tablet gizmo so I can get back to work is progressing, the new one arrived yesterday! It’s a brand new, Wacom Cintiq22 and I’m so excited to be working again on my preferred surface that I can scarcely keep from drooling! And this time it’s not just a Sunday morning hangover. I love the design & functionality improvements in the past five years, as well. What a joy to be back to working on Peyote Cowboy! I think I may even get the next episode posted in a week or less! Woohoo! says my heart.
Wayno’s wonderful weekly cartoon blog post this week is entitled Simple Machines & Gaelic Insects and it’s every bit as fascinating as the title implies. This week’s pipe pic is one of my faves so far!
That concludes our exploration of the existential angst of the Sunday Comics pages. Thanks for bringing the Silly Putty, Jazz Pickles. If you’re digging the vibes we’re laying down, man, maybe consider thanking us for doing it without ads or paywalls by tossing us a doobie via one of the links below. That would be cool. Real cool, daddio.
Till next time, keep your pickles jazzy.
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*No such book exists.