Our world is filled with so much beauty, when we as humans decide to place our devices down and observe the wonder around us. The lies which we're told are so believable that many choose to work until they're too old to enjoy the fruit(s) of their labor. The nuggets which I've gathered along my journey are simple, to me at least, "I do no work in order to live, I live..."
There are countless people who approach me within a given year and ask how I'm able to travel as much as I do. Typically, I throw out a bullshit answer such as, "It's easy, anyone can do, I mean if I can do it, anyone can..." In hindsight there is semi-truth found within my statement. The reason I travel and attempt to see new things is due to the fact that I make myself available to adventure.
The world is a humungous and we're merely mice within this sphere we call Earth; however, much like lab mice, we're used for tests without any real knowledge of what's taking place. We humans come into places such as the one pictured below with our cellphones ready to Snapchat, Facebook live, or Facetime the world (it's all dependent on your service provider as well).
Over the course of the last year or so, I've had legitimate battles with myself as to why the need for validation or for that matter, the daily checkin. Does anyone truly care that I've taken a picture of my buddy and his wife standing in a grove of massive redwood trees, shoot, would I really care if this were someone else posting the same picture? I mean really...
A few weeks ago, I officially deleted my Facebook account, I know right, I'm still alive to write about it! It was probably close to three or four years ago when I started having a problem with how easy it was to stay connected to the noise. We have three hundred billion users online but only a handful of real humans saying anything worthwhile. I swore to myself, years ago, that if I saw another picture/post of someone having dinner, reposting a dumb video, being racist, sexist, or or or; it's amazing how long I allowed myself to lie to myself.
As I sat in front of my computer, my conscience attempted to play one last trick on me, "How about all of your friends who live abroad, how will they be able to..." (click, DELETE). I jumped out of one game, unscathed by a world which many still hold onto. There were days when I would feel the weight of so much upon my shoulders, days when I would feel as though I needed to say something, anything, in order to feel relevant but then there was the day I realized I was one of the mice.
Facebook reminded me that though I was gone, my memories/pictures can still live on via social media once they're notified of my death. I'll make sure to send them a quick email before I leave this earth, then again, they might have a better idea of when I'll be gone more so than I do.
My buddies and me visited some pretty amazing places recently, as I exited their vehicle, I slowly looked up to see just how far the branches stretched, I looked up to see just how much space there was between the sky and the top of the canopy. On this day, I realized that there are so many narratives, so many storylines which still have yet to be played out in our lives/my life.
Perhaps my remaining days will be about mice and Nem... (the one rodent who found his way out)