Family Values

Happy 50th birthday Marc on the bus! I don't think an open beer & a drunken rant is the best way to celebrate tho.

I had a very interesting bus ride home tonight. The above was a tweet I was typing out but decided to draft it instead. And now I'm simply posting it on here (multi-transferring-social-media-platforming!).

Marc was a pleasant man, as pleasant as drunk men can be I suppose. He just wants to make people smile, and tonight he succeeded with me. This wasn't the usual rant about anti-government and corporate elitists. I met a man who really just wants a friend. Someone who he can share a genuine beer and go fishing with (but not at the same time! On no). Someone who enjoys the little things in life that the rest of us pass by without glancing; smiles, jokes, and simple conversations.

People these days are too into their computers and their gadgets (pointing conveniently to the phone in my hand) -  they can't sit down anymore and have a meal with the family, he says to me. When did we get like this?

I was reading about the irony people have to buy homes with yards, but for what? They sit in their basements or their bedrooms on a laptop anyway. Communication downgrades to 140 characters or sentences that are made with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols - to someone literally a few feet away.

We need to start engaging with people again. Strangers, acquaintances, friends, family, we need to reach out and not get sucked into our technology. We need to stop letting boredom become our excuse for leaving the dinner table, either physically or consciously.

Marc reminded me a lot about family values tonight. That family should be one of the things we value most.

Happy Birthday, Marc.