Silence- the enemy or our guide?

A Story by jeff

Do we dictate our path in life or are we being manipulated by other forces?

Silence - The Enemy or Our Guide?

Consider your daily schedule. The necessary actions and the actions that bring you some type of pleasure. As humans we are creatures of emotion. What we derive emotionally from a person or activity is the single force that drives us and gives us "motivation." And because we are creatures addicted to chasing the highs and avoiding the lows, forethought rarely takes precedence. It is nothing to be ashamed of. It is just in our genetic code.
This is not news to us. Humans have learned throughout our creation of "society" to play on these driving forces. Every advertisement you encounter daily is trying to evoke some emotion in you, and advertising has been substantially successful. The clothes we wear, to the cars we drive, advertising has literally dictated natural adaptation. With vast technological advances, we no longer know what it is to experience a moment of life without stimulation. Direct communication is dying with each passing day and no one seems to be alarmed. No one seems to be alarmed that we have to "tweet" our feelings and obsess over "likes" on our photos to feel like we matter. To me it is utterly disturbing and only makes me cringe at the thought of what is to come in the future. We were meant to evolve. We were all born to become something great and transcendent, but we have remained stagnant for quite some time.
What we have failed to realize is that those moments of silence we no longer encounter are the purest forms of life. In those moments of silence we question our purpose and what "reality" we currently live in. Those are the moments of change. The times where we can envision the endpoint in our lives and contemplate what we truly thirst for. I will give you a guess of what one of those thirsts are. It is exactly the opposite of what we pretend to do each day. We thirst for connection and love. We think we can derive meaning from artificial means, but our smartphones can't hug us. Our computer won't help us sleep easier at night. Those nights of binge drinking won't bring us anything but temporary comfort. Our lives are temporary by definition. There's no reason for us to manufacture more temporary moments or feelings. We all need to just live and experience what it truly means to be human. It is a gift that has been bestowed on us from sources and reasons unknown. And because it is a gift, we need to cherish it and protect it. For only we determine the depth of our experiences. I believe there is so much more to the idea of life that we have not grasped yet. Maybe we won't ever come to any definitive answers, but I could die peacefully knowing that I took each day as it was. Let us get back to the basics. Let us have that conversation with your friend without touching or thinking of your phone. Experience and give love fully in the present moment. Let us get back to evolving.