Going Through The Motions

In life it’s good to know where you stand, by that I mean with other human beings. An example of what I’m talking about is take a neighbor or acquaintance that you causally communicate. You exchange “Hello’s”, or “Good Morning” or “How’s the family?” Nothing too serious just light conversation, in those situations you know where you stand with that person.

Then you have people with whom you work or with family you stay in touch. In those situations how far is too far? I mention family in this because with some family there is so little communication, the family is more like strangers, to the point that you feel more comfortable in a strangers home then you would in theirs.

In American culture or at least the part I live in, families seem to act like they can’t wait to get away from one another. When I was a kid it was nothing to load up the family wagon and visit Grandma or Uncle Buck and Aunt June for the weekend. But if you ever see how TV or movies portray this, you’d think every family trip was a disaster, but they were not. I mean maybe Grandma got bad TV reception or Uncle Buck’s preacher was a bit “long-winded”. But for the most part it was a fun.

Why do we seem content to be families of total strangers? Living in our tightly packed subdivisions with the curtains drawn and the doors locked. You could justify this by saying it’s a product of these dangerous times. But my reply would be, have you ever spoke to your neighbor across the street to see if they’re really crazy or do you just assume it?

I suppose my point is, why I’m I the one looked at as the weird one because I sit on my porch in the morning. When some of my “country” neighbors only step outside when getting out of their cars and heading into their houses till the next day? I think it’s time to give ourselves a reality check and ask the question, Am I really living? Or I’m I just going through the sad motions?