Recently I went on a vacation to South Beach, Miami. I stayed at a place right on the beach near the pier, the most affluent and expensive part of town. I was able to do so because of a deal I found online and a free flight voucher, not because I’m wealthy. I mean, I still get groceries from the food shelf.  

It felt weird. It’s the second time I’ve been there now. Vacation feels weird, actually. I don’t do vacation. I don’t do relaxation. I find that I am fairly incapable of doing just nothing. of just resting.  

This is a problem...

2015 was a ______ year. You can go ahead and fill that in. With just about any adjective really. Here’s a brief break down of what we’ve just been through.

Cops killing civilians. Civilians killing cops. Worldwide terrorists attacks. Mass shootings. Mass abductions. Earthquakes. Floods. Landslides. Baby parts being sold. People killing people in the name of those baby parts. Refugee babies washing up on distant shorelines. Terrorists posing as refugees. Political scandal. Politicians with bad hair reminding us that humanity is a sad broken machine. History repeating itself in the most obvious and obnoxious ways...

We have become a nation, if not a world, of daily celebrations. There is a day for everything now. In fact, we just recently celebrated national chocolate day. Don’t get me wrong. I love chocolate as much as the next guy, but really? Really? It feels like all 365 days of the year are now assigned to some random thing that was pulled out of hat. And now it gets it’s own day. Can we just stop it already?

Not everything deserves it’s own day...

I have a box filled with cards and lists of people next to the gifts they gave me. Some are recent. Birthdays, showers, etc… Some are over six years old. From my wedding. In 2009. 

It sits on a shelf in my closet. Unopened. Still. After all this time. 

Why do I still even have these? As if after all this time I’m suddenly going to sit down and start writing out thank you cards. Dear so and so, thank you for the bathroom mat we actually returned for an ill advised set of white towels. White. Nothing stays white. For me, at least. Ugh...

We sit behind our screens, the world at our fingertips. So we think we are living. We think that we are connected. Up to date. In the know.

We are not.

These electronic devices, offering us a different kind of window to the world. A different view. A different landscape. A different reality.

Our perception of life and relationship has become skewed. Altered. Impaired...