Life is so routine. Actually, life is pretty damn boring sometimes. And school is boring. And work is boring. Or at least it CAN be.
And NOWHERE is this better proved than in the “conversation” I had today at work. Or, as I call it…THE MOST BORING SMALL TALK CONVO OF ALL TIME AND UNIMAGINABLE SADNESS AND FRUSTRATION…
The following is a verbatim exchange I had with a stranger at work as we both walked towards the elevator. This was it:
Him: “How are you?”
Me: “Hey.”
Him: “Good.”
Exactly. Thrilling, right? Like Einstein and Hawking might talk about.
My first thought after that little conversation was: “Wait…what?” That man clearly had NO mental recognition of what I had said. But neither had I really processed what he had said. We were both guilty, both totally mindless, both pretty freakin dumb at the time (and I don’t like admitting such things normally).
Don’t we all do this though?
Don’t we all, all-too-often, simply walk around, through the daily routine that is our life, so consumed in our little thoughts that we’re completely oblivious to what’s ACTUALLY happening around us; to the world our bodies actually engage at every moment of our day?
Occasionally – almost miraculously – we somehow drag our bodies to the restroom and encounter another person, also so completely inside their own head that they too are like zombies in the day. We then mouth our little scripts on cue, our “how are you’s” and “hey what’s up’s”, and stick to that script regardless of whatever may actually be said in return.
Yuck.
We live on autopilot; like little robots set to “exist”. Except my robot would be more beautiful than most (my brother’s especially).
It’s Shocking, But School is Boring, Work is Boring
I think it’s probably a logical response to the monotony that’s become the average person’s day.
We exist by schedules and routines. The school day does this to us. The workday does this to us. But mostly we do it to ourselves. We allow it.
We do so few new things that we’re able to memorize our days, and we memorize our days to such detail that we’re able to remove our attention from them. We’re able to survive from rise-to-rest with very little use of our attention.
We make every new day old and boring.
We let our muscles do the work that our minds ought to.
Zombies.
We should be aware of our surroundings, though. We should treat each interaction as a human interaction. We should snap ourselves out of our little stupors, and see what’s around us. We should break our routines, and kill the monotony.
We should be mindful that we’re alive when awake.
Unless, of course, you prefer to being a zombie. I mean…whatevs.
What’s YOUR Story?
Have an awkward “not-paying-attention” story too? I’d bet you do. Share below so the we can all laugh at you too. Just basic manners there…
