There’s a big world out there. We forget that part. Somewhere between back-to-school clothes shopping, Girl’s Night Out, and getting your tag renewed we forget that. We get so caught up in our own spacious lawn that we miss the stretch of hills and valleys beyond it. Our thoughts get convoluted, our schedule gets overloaded, and our list of priorities rearranges. We lose sight of simple pleasures, become more and more easily frustrated, and fall behind the eight ball of mounting demands upon us. Welcome to The American Dream.
Today I was driving to visit some family. I was driving ten miles per hour over the posted speed limit when a car came up closely on my rear. She persisted there as we drove over curvy, hilly roads, but eventually passed me on a double yellow line. As she passed she made angry gestures and pretty sure she almost made this ole sailor blush when I read her lips. This came on the tail end of a stranger’s rude comments in Walmart over the behavior of children in general and how I should keep mine out of his way as he hurried through the store. The day reminded me how so many people rushed along oblivious to the blessings of life, angry over assumed injustices, and how self-absorbed most of society could be. We miss what’s really important in life.
There’s a great big world out there. It so happens to be a place where not everyone is concerned with name brands, manicures, and a perfectly maintained flower bed. Somewhere on a park bench sits a young mother worrying how she will feed herself and her son, where they’ll stay for the night, and if her estranged husband will find them. Across town, a lady turns the plate of her Hello Fresh, snaps a picture with the perfect filter, and shares to Instagram her supper for all her followers to see.
There’s a great big world out there. It’s a place where some people will curse in rage at the slow car ahead of them, delaying their pursuit of froyo with friends. They pass quickly and blindly by the homeless man holding a cardboard sign that says, “Jesus loves.”
We get frustrated at slow internet connections, our son’s birthday cake not being just right, or too much laundry that has to be done. We get mad at nuisances we create. Too many clothes to put away because we over-shop, too much yard work because we went into debt for the house with a larger lawn, and an overloaded schedule that we ourselves generated. We worry about where we’ll have our 11-year-old’s party and if the decorations will be enough. Everything in life has a theme, an overinflated, trumpeting celebration for the everyday mundane, complete with perfect pictures to prove it happened.
Each moment becomes framed, worrying what others may think, striving to make a good impression, working hard for applause. Life becomes a modeling shoot, focus is aimed at self, vision becomes tunnel-like. Your eyes unintentionally see only you and yours, and that whole, big world out there falls away. A selfish generation, set on success, yet only judging success by the standards of the carnal world. Sounds harsh, right? But I’m talking to myself as well.
You find yourself in a rat race, living each day just like the one before. You go to work to pay the credit card bills, or to save up for a Disney vacation you’ll need another week off to recover from. You never see your friend in need, and you’re too busy rushing to your next appointment to see the family member who needs a hand. Why are suicide rates soaring? Because no one sees the pain of others anymore. How sad.