And I'm back. :)
I am not sure how many times I have wandered on treacherous virtual islands, treading away from the depths of my heart to seek the greener land. But regardless how far I have gone, my heart bleeds for unproductive days. Words untranscribed haunted me. My heart beats letters and thoughts that need to be blogged. I was made to write. Now I vow to stop stopping myself.
2014 has come, and it already made a tremendous change in me. After years of browsing the lives of strangers, millions of minutes wasted through newsfeeds of hundreds upon hundreds of faceless list, in the middle of January 2014, I pulled the plug. I have had enough of Facebook.
I tried it last year. Two days later, I came back running. I am proud to say that after nearly two weeks, the Facebook temptation never crossed my focused mind. I do not see any sign of relapse on the horizon whatsoever.
It is an irony. Facebook's motto is to bring people together, but if bringing people together means checking on their profiles and liking their pictures thus updating ourselves with their lives, discounting interaction because information is provided freely and accessibility is timeless, then yes, it has reached its goal. If friendship is equated to commenting on posts, sharing photos, advertising your life to be adored or abhored (secretly) by others, Facebook is a powerful tool. But we are people, and no matter how much evolution we surpass in the waves of time, our relationships, the deepest of them at least, are all based on personal interactions. I will never forget a conversation with a friend while waiting for my bus some months ago. Another friend whom I was talking through a messenger years ago called me long distance that day just to share five minutes of laughter. There were no words uttered, just a long, vibrant, teary laughter was all that could be heard on the other end. Apparently, a typed Hahaha or HAHAHA were not enough to express this hearty, big guffaw. We shared a duet.
It is the pouring of our hearts that include the tone of our voice, facial expression, body language, the crackle of laughter that gives tummy ache, the touching statements that produce tears, these are essentials that bond us together. Facebook masks these vital information. Unfortunately, they can never go online.
According to Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body, men and women are called to communion with one another. That communion is a bodily thing, and our presence to one another should be bodily as well. We are made to spend real things with real people and real events, and these activities give us lasting joy. I spent an afternoon yesterday at a park with my friend's five year old daughter. She played with her friends and classmates, while I took the swing for the first time in many years. I sat and aimed at the highest, the leather seat and metal chains brought me to the sky and the clouds above. The wind on my face, the rubber ground on my feet, the smell of steel that swayed me back and forth, the sound of children laughing and teasing in the background, the afternoon sun kissing a tangy orange light on my face. It was the most fun-filled afternoon I have had in a long time. I felt in the present. I felt alive.
We are called to live our lives. We were born to be alive. Spending so much on modern day gossiping destroys our humanity. All things will come to an end, and however we brush it off, life is short. Let us start living before the wick of our lives spew its last flame. Let us start being in the present, involving our five senses, especially our hearts. Let us see the world through it. It is only through it that we see all. That, indeed, the world is a beautiful creation of God. That God, indeed, is in everything He created. That, we, ourselves, are a wonderful creation of His. We are beautiful, real people of God. Let us not disappoint Him.
