i’m zooming through space. social media space. social, that’s what it’s being referred to as these days i think.

i’m rushing about on two separate machines, my desktop and my handphone. there’s no time to breathe or pause as i flit from facebook to twitter to instagram to my forum, my blog, you know how it is. they keep saying older people stay away from such things. why don’t i listen to them? i am old people; i’ve seen thirty five, forty six, even fifty seven… maybe i don’t exist.

but i’m hooked and flying.

i don’t care facebook is manipulating my newsfeed (all these new words), or insta (that gram too much like telegram from that other planet we once used to inhabit) is hiding “likes” from me so that they can prey on my insecurities (i have plenty) and have me visit again and again to check if everyone out there, even though i haven’t a clue who they are, has awarded me a like. oh, the fun of watching the number grow, the utter dejection when that doesn’t seem to be happening.

…..

prioritise.

i remember i heard the word, possibly for the first time, sometime in the early nineties. the frequency of usage was high: all the time, every now and every then it popped up wherever you went, whoever you were with, at pubs, parties, work, even at home. i remember not liking the sound of it… something machine-like about it, hard, grasping. not at all something i’d like to make a part of my life; my days on this earth, meandering and muddling through, never quite sure what wonderful thing might happen next.

prioritise?

why were we so eager to assign an order to the things that made up our lives? to evaluate everything? was it even possible to do that? did we know so much? weren’t there any surprises in life? and what if there were moments when having a chilled beer was all i cared about? would that immediately mark me as a pointless human being? maybe i am… why am i smiling at the thought.

…..

yesterday i met a young man who gazes at galaxies. sometimes they’re a billion light years away, sometimes farther than that, or maybe right beside us. he said he spends hours and hours looking at the past, what happened there. why did that sound beautiful? he studies the evolution of adolescent galaxies.

do adolescent galaxies throw tantrums? do they give the universe a really hard time? do they get unnerved by all the changes in them?

okay, frivolous questions apart, was good to hear someone is gazing at the stars. at the worlds we know nothing about, not really. at the mystery.

that mystery, how it calls us.

…..

i am not likely to get off social media soon. i sense the addictive element in it. it’s possibly even interfering with our ability to feel, to really enter emotions. to gaze into ourselves and all the galaxies within. but perhaps this is transition time, something wonderful coming up beyond this frenzy?

or maybe i really should take a break.

felt like doodling. letting thoughts come and go. hoping to hear some of your thoughts.

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