The very lovely, supportive and kind John Dodds recently told me my blog posts are basically ‘one line of an idea, stretched to the limit’.
And he was right.
For a person whose job is to ‘simplify’, I don’t half go on and on and on sometimes.
Anyway, I digress. As usual.
So I was watching a program recently where it showed kids going off to play with their friends and that got me thinking.
Do you remember when you were young and when you wanted to play with your mates you just went round to their house and knocked on their door?
No phoning, SMSing, MSNing or emailing to check if they were in/available … you just got off your arse and ran round to see if they wanted to come out to play.
Or chat.
Or share a can of Tizer.
Do we do that anymore?
Putting aside the fact Tizer makes Red Bull look like natural spring water … I would hasten to guess, probably not – and if we do ever have unexpected visitors turn up on our doorstep, our first reaction is probably more likely to be one of annoyance than thrill.
Why are we like this?
Sure there’s many things we could throw up as excuses …
We are working harder and have bigger responsibilities than ever before.
We spend so much working, we need to spend time with our loved ones.
We’re so busy we never have time to do the odd jobs that need fixing.
… but at the end of the day, most of that’s a load of bollocks because popping in to see a mate unannounced a couple of times a month is hardly going to kill us is it?
I’ve said it before but this ‘planned spontaneity’ attitude that is prevalent amongst so many of us is pretty sad so here’s my challenge …
This weekend go and knock on a mates door just to ‘say hello’.
No pre-screening … just go over, say hello and then maybe suggest ‘a drink’ for no other reason than it would be nice to catch up.
I know they’ll probably think you’re about to tell them you’re getting a divorce or have cancer … but don’t worry about that … get back to a time when friendship was as much about just hanging out as it was having someone to copy your homework off.
Yes … I am aware that [1] this is an unbelievably bad post and [2] it say’s more about me than it does you … but if you recognise any of this in your life, then maybe you’re losing touch with some of the elements that make life great.
Oh the irony that this is all coming from a man writing it on a blog to a bunch of people he has never met … ha!