I am not invisible – at this point in my not so twiggy life, I would like to be a little skinnier, but I am very much a solid visual and I matter.  This being said, explain to me why at 3am when my dog who is unable to jump from the bed in his old age cries to go out, my husband sighs at an audible 10 on the scale, loudly turns on the side light, sits up and says, “What is wrong?  Where is mommie?  Do you have to go out?”  Seriously?  With all the power of prayer, I wish the dog would turn to him and say “Dude have you lost your mind? I AM a dog  <(-‘.’-)>”

In a nutshell I guess that sums up so much in life anymore, to avoid confrontation, disappointment or embarrassment – actually any emotion can be inserted here, we turn to that old friend “third person” who is always behind the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  Children learn this technique early, as they approach one parent and then the other while both are in the same room.  Great set up, play them off each other, one is bound to break down with a yes vote.  Now, as adults we have made it social media, where things are posted and contact avoided all together, isn’t that just one warm and fuzzy *:*   feeling all over!

In the days of answering machines, some of my fondest memories were of my father, who would speak to my machine – literally.  “Oh, hello, tell her that her Dad called and I love her and if she isn’t busy she can call me back.  Good-bye.” Those were priceless and in his elderly state of untechnical knowledge very acceptable.  I am even a little guilty of leaving a few messages myself after a date that was not going to happen again – “sorry I guess I’m just not your type after all” hit and runs do have some merit.

But now, emotions have been scaled down into “emoticons,” and have literally taken away the need for actual words for the past 29 years if you can believe that!  I wonder in some future archeological dig if it will be studied how we went from cave drawings to computerizations, nuclear physics and medical advancements of creating life in a Petri dish to:  <):) :-“ @-) by a ~:>    in case you need crib notes (no that has nothing to do with frggin MTV show ) those little marks  say “Cowboy was hypnotized by a chicken.”  Frankly I will always prefer the popular verbal “The Crow screams at midnight” for my secret agent communication.   The point is, the wasted time and stupidity it took for someone to sit at a keyboard way too long     =%-O  and think up all these little symbols and do-dah shorthand things just to avoid really communicating or  [-(  “ not talking” as the case maybe – upper or lower be sure to check, is pathetic!

Sometimes it is nice to just get a random little heart on my smart phone telling me I am thought about, loved and not alone and I give them as well.  But it doesn’t substitute for the involvement in life, the 🙂 happy and 😦 sad times when being there for someone matters.  I seriously [-o< pray that we get past this stage in communication and can return to a warm hand, soft heart and loving voice that has nothing to do with a keyboard. I know I am probably just  :-“  whistling in the dark here over my imaginary  ~O) coffee and smelling some font scented roses @>–;– @>–;–  but it is a nice thought, even if I am just

sitting here at home

…¸ __/ /\____
,·´º o`·,/__/ _/\_ //____/\
“`)¨(´´´ | | [1] | | [1]| | |[1] || |l±±±±
! ; ¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-. :º°            talking to myself.  I want the real version of life back, not the cliff notes (Google it), shorthand or emoticon versions.

Maybe reducing ourselves to this language of marks is more symbol-like than it appears.  By sending off these little squiggles and hashes, we’ve edited out everything in the text of the moment which wastes time, so we can hurry and get on to the next more important event in our lives and really leave our mark.  Not that anyone is going to be around to notice it of course unless it is on a computer screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

http://www.netlingo.com/smileys.php

http://www.muller-godschalk.com/yahoo.html

For your next discussion………………