Someone is standing in front of you...steady talking...not really saying much of anything...but just talkin'.  Just say, "And now for a moment of silence."  Slightly bow your head for slightly 1.2 seconds and then just walk away.  Rude, I know, but Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Myspace/Tumblr/_________ (for whatever I left out) has taught us that EVERYTHING matters.  Rambling is acceptable because EVERYTHING matters. Breaking into another person's conversation is acceptable because we comment on each other's threads all the time, usually uninvited, and even there to comment with some completely unrelated tidbit of nothingness. Thank you social media. We do not work as hard as we say we do. We do not achieve as many of our goals or even scratch off the mundane from our daily to-do list. We DO wake up and check our feed and accept it as news. We believe every person is real and they ALL walk the Earth with good intentions. We exist within a new existence. One where if I create a profile and say I'm an astronaut, it must be so, I mean...it IS on Facebook, photos and all.

There IS someone standing in front of us, steady talking...not really saying much of anything. We are. We read a series of personal statements and call it a person...a friend. I remember being in high school...in middle school...in elementary school...wanting to be the popular kids' friend and not being cool enough to make the cut. But you worked at being a better you and if you managed to get "in" fine but if you didn't you discovered you could forge your OWN crew and created your OWN clique among the misfits with whom you best fit. NOW, with a click, you ARE friends and being a friend is a low commodity because ANYBODY can get "in" as long as you haven't hit 5,000. And they are standing in front of you...steady talking...not really saying much of anything.

There is no one to miss. When I was in grad school in California, I recall going back to my old high school in Virginia, and marveling at how things had changed and how other things were completely locked in time. Teachers smiled and remembered "that time when..." and your old coach ask if you're still playing ball, at all. They said things like, "Wow, look how you've grown." or "You have kids now?! Wow..." and you got to be a grown up and you got to be remembered.  NOW, your students become your friends way before their time and there is nothing to remember because you never left and they won't marvel and you won't ask because it's crawling a feed and demands a "Like". This is no one to miss because they never leave. And they are standing in front of you...steady talking...not really saying much of anything.

Yes, we are connected and Yes there is networking to be done and Yes it is today's version of the invention of the telephone meets the television but it's also crack cocaine. You tell yourself, "I can walk away. I can quit anytime I want. I can leave it alone and get my life together. You'll see." It's the "you'll see" that's fatal because you'll come back for another hit, just to check and see if anyone else is paying attention to you being strong enough to do something we are all too weak to do: Be quiet.

That's enough. I'm just rambling...not really saying much of anything at all. And NOW for a moment of silence...

...wonder how many "likes" I can get...