During the relatively brief period of time, between winter’s seasonal holidays, and the end of the year, many individuals, perennially, experience, a sense of having, breathlessly, arrived at a hiatus, effectively, a small oasis, in the surging sandstorm of time, sufficient to experience, a private moment of self-analysis, retrospection and, personal catch-up.
There are people who feel anticipatorily depressed, and at a true loss to comprehend, the universal expressions of joy, and celebratory, Mardi Gras atmosphere, of the coming New Year’s, holiday, its annual celebration of the passing, of another valuable year, of a finite lifetime. To such people, in such a somber context, it may seem that the New Year whirlpool- maelstrom, of drinking and reveling, is merely, an ephemeral, diversion from the stark realization that another, irretrievable and meaningless year has, passed.
The seemingly, exponential rate of change, in electronic-computer facility, particularly, its real life, social consequences: the morphing from personal interactive communication, to impersonally transmitted small screen symbols, authentic friendships to mere “face book” acceptance, from human, personal services, to absentee robotology, from the enthusiasm and excitement of personal investigation and hunt for knowledge, to the mundane pressing of “apps,” on a hand held instrument, from turning pages of a softly lit, good book, to scrutinizing words on an electronic screen, and from the all-pervasive and fast evolving, metamorphosis, from natural human contact and interaction, to impersonal electronic connection, appear to be prominent features in the raging sandstorm of societal change. Life has, for a great many people, been tending to appear, progressively lonelier, more insular, and less meaningful.
There are many, (especially, among the younger generation), who will, rarely, experience the pleasures of natural, personal interaction with a recognized voice, and the benefits of spontaneous response, the comforting, tactual experience, of turning pages of a good book, under a soft reading light, never write a selectively worded, personal letter, concoct a recipe, read a newspaper or magazine, or write an article. In a complicated age, when personal interaction and social contact are vitally important, they have chosen, in compliance with the call of contemporary lifestyle, to sell out vital life experience, for the cheap allure and easy convenience of populist and impersonal, (if more efficient), electronics.
Such people have, in any objective audit of the franchise of life, received little, aside from some physical convenience, and momentary comfort, in an unwise exchange, for the complete loss of the invaluably, warm reassurance, of shared socialization and the excitement of novel experience. Many have become ambulatory couch potatoes, bored and disappointed, with so little return accrued from life, and panicky, regarding the fleeting time, fruitlessly, waiting, for something good to happen.
The inevitable passage of years is accepted by many others as well, but, in their case, is mitigated by the recognition that their limited franchise of life, is being spent in the enjoyable pursuit of an elective interest, in pursuing and developing knowledge, understanding and perspective. We have used the opportunity of this blogspace, to encourage advancement and the development of a mature perspective of the self and of others, as well as of man’s environment. We have emphasized mutual, natural and real life interaction, as the best means for the exchange of thoughts, feelings and information, but also, as a needed assurance of societal membership, and personal identity; as contrasted with a desperate feeling of insulation and insecurity. Reading (of books) has been recommended as a lifetime activity, as is, involvement in a chosen interest, involvement in the arts and sciences, as possible, and of course, active family participation.
In this blog space, we have chosen to maintain the theory, that the evolution of man is an ever continuing phenomenon. Further, that man accrues a moral responsibility, to use his unique potential, to the utmost of his ability, to achieve greater value from his life, and as an expression of appropriate gratitude to nature, for its generous, singular gift of an advanced brain. Those who do so, come to fully appreciate, in the thought-provoking, oasis of time, between the holidays and the New Year, a wonder at the marvelous franchise of life, and enjoy an appreciation for the time allotted to them. They happily and gratefully, celebrate at the New Year’s holiday, the incomparable value of the time, afforded to them (albeit finite), and live gratefully and fully.
In this blogspace, we have consistently declared that ultimate, “success,” is the internal realization of self-fulfillment, and not the external, accumulation of worldly possessions.
-p.
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