Have you seen me lately?

by Benji Raymond

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

"When you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up." (Big Fish)

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While I was in Melbourne visiting my sister, she offered to take me to Gloria Jean’s coffee shop. I stood in the queue for what seemed like eternity looking at the amount of different teas and coffees and the variations between the two that the store assistant came to ask if I needed a hand in deciding what to buy. I felt like quite the fool when I noticed that the other customers were getting quite fed up with my indecision. I ended up walking out with a regular, normal tea. While sipping her Vanilla Crème De Caramel, my sister confessed that she could have made me the regular tea at home. But it was not about the type or flavour of tea I was consuming, I concluded. Surely the fact that we were enjoying each other’s company and feeling the vibrant atmosphere was enough.

Taking a deep look at myself (not fun, I promise!); I realized that the way I spend my time is mostly superficial. If I’m not watching reality TV., then I’m spending time considering alternative ways of wasting my time. I realized that we are so struck by the degree of choices in this world, that we are losing our sense of selves. Counting Crows has a song called, ‘Have You Seen Me Lately’ and while the song is not specifically about losing touch with who we are, the title itself makes it clearer what the vast amounts of the choices we have today are doing.

If I’m not walking to a lecture bopping to the beats of my 60 gig ipod, then I’m text messaging a friend while driving. We've become so scared of facing ourselves that we're constantly looking for ways to entertain ourselves and keep our mind's occupied. We've become so engrossed with choices that we have lost touch with who we are. In fact, it’s about time we all asked ourselves… “Have you seen me lately?”

I recall pondering how unfortunate it must have been that my parents did not have the choices they or I have today. I considered what an underprivileged and poor world they lived in. But on the contrary, it’s the degree of choices in this world that make our world such a superficial and external one.

A Long December