superficial rhythm

in the throngs of deep thought and slippery solitude, i distracted myself for a bit and read through some blogs that i more or less follow religiously. one blog, my dear friend's sister, shared the following quote.  *herein the author (me) totally acknowledges stealing this quote.

it's long. but do yourself a favor and read it until the end:

"The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters, meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked. This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people, more people, more countries. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us. The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision."

― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947

first of all, how interesting and, in my opinion, ironic, that this was written in the 40s. that's PRE-internet, PRE-facebooktwittersocialmediacraziness, PRE-iPhone 5.2.2.8. if our intimacy with others was at risk then, i feel like we're complete goners now.

i think this quote resonated with me tonight because it describes what i possibly miss most about spain: a full life where i, on a daily basis, was interacting face to face with humans that i cared about. spainards (and many european cultures for that matter) value relationships with others above everything else (yep. even work. SHOCKING). while in spain, it was customary for me to meet up with friends at 10 PM for a quick drink and an appetizer, just to catch up. many nights i found myself catching the midnight metro home knowing full well that i had to wake up and work in the morning. but you know what? it didn't matter. it didn't matter because work, while important, was secondary to relationships. and it was easy to do there because almost EVERYONE held this same opinion.

here, in the land of red, white, and blue, it's quite different. i feel like friendships are saved for saturdays. mid-week interactions don't go further than my facebook wall. and i find it atrociously isolating and stupid. i've been the scrooge of all things american lately (nothing against my lovely country, i am just finding it hard to adapt back to our crazy culture like WHOA). but damnit all to heck, why can't we be more attentive to each other? why do we run ourselves ragged so that the thought of doing more than shooting a text is daunting and exhausting?

i wonder what ms. nin would think if she were among us today. something tells me she'd take one look at our smart phones and earbuds and our "superficial rhythms" and shake her head. and i can't say i would blame her.