There are days when finding inspiration is difficult. Most Tuesdays qualify for such designation, for example.
Music, literature, film, soaring birds, the family dog, the kids the wife the coffee the commute...inspiration can come from anything or from anywhere, sometimes when you least expect it, but there are those particular times when it is difficult to find. The problem does not exist within the effort, but convincing oneself to desire the inspiration is the real source of the challenge. It is not exactly the same thing as ordering a melancholy person to smile, but it's close. These things just can't be forced.
Or can they?
Perhaps it is just a matter of rolling up the sleeves and mining for that spark.
Normally, social media draws more cynicism from me than not...that being said, not every source of inspiration has to be all wine and roses. The dark matter lurking within the depths of our souls is often a deep well of creativity.
In no way am I inferring that what you are about to read is pure original in thought or highly creative insight. I'm merely stating that it's not going to be poetry about a pretty flower. Unless you consider social media a pretty flower and me complaining about it poetry.
If social media sites are any indication of the sociological well being of this highly sophisticated, modern culture, our future is in some serious doubt. Giving the civilized world a platform to express their individual thoughts at any given moment in time is a blade that is quite sharp on both edges. In the history of mankind there has never been such an open forum for the masses to have their voice heard to express themselves politically, religiously, creatively, poetically, or as freely as is now possible due to the internet and especially social media. Unfortunately, there has never been such an open forum for the masses to have their voice heard to express themselves more irresponsibly. There is a price for this so called freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression, or freedom to blurt out anything and everything that comes to mind.
It's your right to expose yourself to the world. Just know that once it's out there, your comments will follow you forever. If you drink coffee in the nude every morning and decide to update your social media status stating as such, that's your prerogative. Just don't attempt to run for public office as this information can and will be made public and used against you.
If you want to inundate your captive audience with daily affirmations, go right ahead. Post cute photos of hippos cuddling with turtles if that's your bag. Complain about work, traffic, weather, media, your parents and your children, by all means necessary.
If you are one of those that like to goad your peers into commenting by updating your status with a "Please pray for so and so..." but not give any details until seventy of your closest friends reply inquiring as to why they should be praying for so and so, please know it's a dirty, transparent trick, begging for attention, but of course, that's your right.
Prove to the world you are smart. Convince your old classmates you are successful. Show off your new fake boobies. These are all accepted forms of this highly sophisticated method of communication facilitated by our obsession for instant gratification.
That being said...
At times, posts from a friend or family member or a friend of a family member, or a family member of a friend warms your heart, makes you smile, makes you proud, makes you glad that social media exists. Through the shit storm of meaningless status updates, there are those bright spots worthy of embracing this open forum we have accepted into our culture. On the surface, social media seems every bit a mockery of life and exemplifies our collective self absorption and festering mental illnesses, but given the context, it seems to echo life more than defile it. Boil it all down and what social media leaves us with is an opportunity to share. For every invitation to play a pointless game collecting charms and hearts and candy icons, there are posts of my nieces and nephews that I don't get to see near often enough doing amazing things. For every erroneous rumor stated in a status update posing as fact, spreading ignorance like wildfire, there is an insightful, thought provoking post providing a perspective on life previously unnoticed.
Today my inspiration comes from this social media world we all seem to love to hate to love.
Today I stumbled upon a post certain to annoy a large population of Facebookers until the experiment fades into the next copy/paste fad.
Make a list of things nobody knows about you.
This one captivates me. I read every one I could find. Although I admire the candid nature of the posts in general, I was hunting for some juicy stuff about my social media friends but came up short...another disappointing factor is that social media doesn't exactly offer much of an opportunity to expand on a thought beyond a line or two. I suppose that's what blogs are for.
I certainly don't blame any of these social media friends from refraining from going off the deep end and revealing truly personal fare or expanding on the items within their lists, but the exercise got me to thinking about what inspires me...which of course led me directly to today's entry about where inspiration comes from, being written right now.
We've now come full circle.
There are moments in life, call them bubbles, call them what you will, but they define who we are. If I were to make such a list of things that people may or may not know about me and post it for the social media world to browse past in annoyance, these are the items I would likely share...and expand on.
1. I nearly drowned in a river while on vacation as a teenager.
I was being careless and slipped off of a log while attempting to cross a body of swift white water. I was lucky enough to latch onto a felled tree's branch sticking out of the river, but from there was unable to do anything but hang on for dear life while swallowing an unknown quantity of very cold water. The current was much too fast to safely reach shore on my own or to hold on much longer. After struggling for what seemed an eternity, some strangers pulled me from the clutches of the raging river. At that moment in time I was cold, embarrassed and extremely mad that the river claimed my favorite hat.
2. I was one of the first people at the scene of a fatal boating accident where a jet skier plowed into a couple of teenage girls being pulled behind a boat on a tube.
I helped secure the boat to the dock right after the incident and both girls were unresponsive and in very bad condition. A friend of theirs, also in the boat and in obvious shock, asked me if they were going to be okay, and foolishly I assured her that the girls would survive. One of them died after being in a coma for several days, the other miraculously made a full recovery. I regret to this day that I gave someone that kind of false hope. There was no justification for that.
3. I have stepped on a baby duck. Intentionally. And I do not regret it.
One day when I am in obvious pain with life seeping out of me in excruciating fashion, I sincerely hope that someone shows me the kind of mercy I offered that baby duck.
4. I love my job, and although there are days I feel like a fraud, acting my way through the day, I am lucky and thrilled to be doing the work I'm doing, in the place I'm doing the work at, with the people I'm doing the work alongside.
5. I love salt, but not nearly as much as my wife does.
6. There are a handful of things that I would kill to protect. These include my wife, my children, my pets, the blanket that keeps me warm at night which is a quilt decorated with a duck pattern, my red hooded sweatshirt and my newly acquired coffee travel mug.
7. I thoroughly enjoy my daily morning commutes. I thoroughly enjoy my daily morning commutes even more now that I have acquired an awesome coffee travel mug.
8. I will never ever ever think of Jazz Hands the same again after 2013 is complete and will actually miss creating these daily writings.
9. I fear growing old way more than I fear dying.
10. I've stayed up way too late writing today's entry.
So I found today's inspiration in an unlikely place. It's worth contemplating those things and moments in life that offer us our sources of that inspiration, and I'm happy to report that social media provided ample reasons for me to jazz my hands on this particular Tuesday.
Today's Jazz Hands wrote the most self-indulgent entry to date.
Music, literature, film, soaring birds, the family dog, the kids the wife the coffee the commute...inspiration can come from anything or from anywhere, sometimes when you least expect it, but there are those particular times when it is difficult to find. The problem does not exist within the effort, but convincing oneself to desire the inspiration is the real source of the challenge. It is not exactly the same thing as ordering a melancholy person to smile, but it's close. These things just can't be forced.
Or can they?
Perhaps it is just a matter of rolling up the sleeves and mining for that spark.
Normally, social media draws more cynicism from me than not...that being said, not every source of inspiration has to be all wine and roses. The dark matter lurking within the depths of our souls is often a deep well of creativity.
In no way am I inferring that what you are about to read is pure original in thought or highly creative insight. I'm merely stating that it's not going to be poetry about a pretty flower. Unless you consider social media a pretty flower and me complaining about it poetry.
If social media sites are any indication of the sociological well being of this highly sophisticated, modern culture, our future is in some serious doubt. Giving the civilized world a platform to express their individual thoughts at any given moment in time is a blade that is quite sharp on both edges. In the history of mankind there has never been such an open forum for the masses to have their voice heard to express themselves politically, religiously, creatively, poetically, or as freely as is now possible due to the internet and especially social media. Unfortunately, there has never been such an open forum for the masses to have their voice heard to express themselves more irresponsibly. There is a price for this so called freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression, or freedom to blurt out anything and everything that comes to mind.
It's your right to expose yourself to the world. Just know that once it's out there, your comments will follow you forever. If you drink coffee in the nude every morning and decide to update your social media status stating as such, that's your prerogative. Just don't attempt to run for public office as this information can and will be made public and used against you.
If you want to inundate your captive audience with daily affirmations, go right ahead. Post cute photos of hippos cuddling with turtles if that's your bag. Complain about work, traffic, weather, media, your parents and your children, by all means necessary.
If you are one of those that like to goad your peers into commenting by updating your status with a "Please pray for so and so..." but not give any details until seventy of your closest friends reply inquiring as to why they should be praying for so and so, please know it's a dirty, transparent trick, begging for attention, but of course, that's your right.
Prove to the world you are smart. Convince your old classmates you are successful. Show off your new fake boobies. These are all accepted forms of this highly sophisticated method of communication facilitated by our obsession for instant gratification.
That being said...
At times, posts from a friend or family member or a friend of a family member, or a family member of a friend warms your heart, makes you smile, makes you proud, makes you glad that social media exists. Through the shit storm of meaningless status updates, there are those bright spots worthy of embracing this open forum we have accepted into our culture. On the surface, social media seems every bit a mockery of life and exemplifies our collective self absorption and festering mental illnesses, but given the context, it seems to echo life more than defile it. Boil it all down and what social media leaves us with is an opportunity to share. For every invitation to play a pointless game collecting charms and hearts and candy icons, there are posts of my nieces and nephews that I don't get to see near often enough doing amazing things. For every erroneous rumor stated in a status update posing as fact, spreading ignorance like wildfire, there is an insightful, thought provoking post providing a perspective on life previously unnoticed.
Today my inspiration comes from this social media world we all seem to love to hate to love.
Today I stumbled upon a post certain to annoy a large population of Facebookers until the experiment fades into the next copy/paste fad.
Make a list of things nobody knows about you.
This one captivates me. I read every one I could find. Although I admire the candid nature of the posts in general, I was hunting for some juicy stuff about my social media friends but came up short...another disappointing factor is that social media doesn't exactly offer much of an opportunity to expand on a thought beyond a line or two. I suppose that's what blogs are for.
I certainly don't blame any of these social media friends from refraining from going off the deep end and revealing truly personal fare or expanding on the items within their lists, but the exercise got me to thinking about what inspires me...which of course led me directly to today's entry about where inspiration comes from, being written right now.
We've now come full circle.
There are moments in life, call them bubbles, call them what you will, but they define who we are. If I were to make such a list of things that people may or may not know about me and post it for the social media world to browse past in annoyance, these are the items I would likely share...and expand on.
1. I nearly drowned in a river while on vacation as a teenager.
I was being careless and slipped off of a log while attempting to cross a body of swift white water. I was lucky enough to latch onto a felled tree's branch sticking out of the river, but from there was unable to do anything but hang on for dear life while swallowing an unknown quantity of very cold water. The current was much too fast to safely reach shore on my own or to hold on much longer. After struggling for what seemed an eternity, some strangers pulled me from the clutches of the raging river. At that moment in time I was cold, embarrassed and extremely mad that the river claimed my favorite hat.
2. I was one of the first people at the scene of a fatal boating accident where a jet skier plowed into a couple of teenage girls being pulled behind a boat on a tube.
I helped secure the boat to the dock right after the incident and both girls were unresponsive and in very bad condition. A friend of theirs, also in the boat and in obvious shock, asked me if they were going to be okay, and foolishly I assured her that the girls would survive. One of them died after being in a coma for several days, the other miraculously made a full recovery. I regret to this day that I gave someone that kind of false hope. There was no justification for that.
3. I have stepped on a baby duck. Intentionally. And I do not regret it.
One day when I am in obvious pain with life seeping out of me in excruciating fashion, I sincerely hope that someone shows me the kind of mercy I offered that baby duck.
4. I love my job, and although there are days I feel like a fraud, acting my way through the day, I am lucky and thrilled to be doing the work I'm doing, in the place I'm doing the work at, with the people I'm doing the work alongside.
5. I love salt, but not nearly as much as my wife does.
6. There are a handful of things that I would kill to protect. These include my wife, my children, my pets, the blanket that keeps me warm at night which is a quilt decorated with a duck pattern, my red hooded sweatshirt and my newly acquired coffee travel mug.
7. I thoroughly enjoy my daily morning commutes. I thoroughly enjoy my daily morning commutes even more now that I have acquired an awesome coffee travel mug.
8. I will never ever ever think of Jazz Hands the same again after 2013 is complete and will actually miss creating these daily writings.
9. I fear growing old way more than I fear dying.
10. I've stayed up way too late writing today's entry.
So I found today's inspiration in an unlikely place. It's worth contemplating those things and moments in life that offer us our sources of that inspiration, and I'm happy to report that social media provided ample reasons for me to jazz my hands on this particular Tuesday.
Today's Jazz Hands wrote the most self-indulgent entry to date.
Day three-hundred and twenty-three complete.
