Over the years mankind has discovered numerous ways to enhance our lives, let’s take transportation for one; we have built roads to shorten travel distance and save time, and we have tweaked transportation methods for our convenience. At the same time, we have cut down the trees that create a healthy environment in order to build the roads and the transportations that was designed to reduce traveling time, emits gases into the atmosphere that affect our health directly and indirectly thus shortens our average lifespan. If we take the increased duration of general illness related to this as well as reduced lifespan, are we really saving time or are we merely doing more in a shorter timespan?

We ever so often trade city lights for stars, social media for time with friends and family and we chase money in exchange for time.

When was the last time that you truly enjoyed a sunset with no distractions in a open landscape without the noise of highways or a high-rise franchise to corrupt the true essence of the moment.

Are we content to watch rats running in herds mimicking the general populous that created their ideal living situations while we scurry to work and back - completely reliant of the technology that deprives us of so much greatness in our lives?

I make a point to create a pivotal balance in my life, and I am blessed enough to live on a farm to do so, but how do people in the city find that balance when their entire existence is basically based on technology?

I was visiting some friends in the city last week when this started to invade my mental barracks. They had moved to the city quite a few months ago and they are very pleasant and outgoing people, however since they moved there they have struggled to make any new friends. People are so caught up in social media and technology during the time that they are not stuck in traffic or working that they neglect the aspects of actual human interaction.

I think that there is also a default safety net of mistrust in anyone who appears to be friendly without probable cause; Here is an example, I went with my friend to a shopping Centre, the place was immense in comparison to the shopping complexes that I am used to in our little farm town, the place was also quite intense! So, there I was looking at all the different shops and the wide varieties of products that they had to offer carefully displayed window after window – perfect displays of commercialized indoctrination, then I turned my focus to the dwellers of the institution and I noticed that the people were mostly busy on their phones, no one dared make eye contact with the next person or greeted any passerby SO, I decided to do a little experiment of my own as I walked. I firstly made eye contact with some people that I passed, and the reaction was severely unexpected, as soon as people realized that they had actually made eye contact the general reaction was:

• Pretend to look busy or divert attention to anything else
• Alternatively, people would immediately look down and increase their pace making sure that they have also increased the distance between you and them.

Then at one of the till points in the supermarket, I did what I normally do, I greeted the cashier on her name and smiled politely, WHOAH I thought the lady was going to press the panic button… After some time of her sitting there looking quite confused with one grocery item in front of her scanner in her now stagnant hand she fearfully asked me

“HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME”

To which I simply replied with a smile on my face;

“IT IS ON YOUR NAMETAG”

I guess life is just a lot less impersonal in the cities, I mean you wear a name tag to work every single day yet you are not used to people using it.

I could feel the cashiers’ eyes staring at me as I walked out the shop and despite the long line of customers waiting she only scanned the next customers first item as I approached the exit.

Oh, give me a grassy field in the open air, starlit skies and the earth under my bare feet any day!

I want to be able to greet a stranger and show kindness to random people.

I guess we can’t all be wired the same!

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