A friend writes to me the other day:
"so i am so addled and ridiculous and old school that i look at your
photo on fb and then GET ONTO EMAIL to send you a note."
A colleague says to me today something along the lines of:
"Here's how crazed and tired I am. I saw your IM from 10AM this morning saying you were going to call me for our meeting and I thought it was from you just now at 5:30 and that's why I'm calling."
And me? I just began scooping my dinner into my drinking glass instead of my pasta bowl.
Does it seem like every other conversation you have these days is about how "crazy" everything is? How busy everyone is? How there is no time? It kind of makes me sad that so many of us are feeling this way--out of touch, behind. Or "spread too thin," as my boss described his own situation to me today.
A long-ago acquaintance posted to Facebook:
"Several of my friends seem to have decided that a Facebook message, tweet, or e-mail is as good as picking up the phone for a bit of actual human contact. I do not approve."
Well, this seemed a bit harsh. And you could argue that if you really feel that way about a friend, then you should express it by picking up the phone instead of broadcasting it on Facebook. But, both intentionally and unintentionally, this message signalled that same -- what is it? Weariness.
Of course, being busy has its charms: less boredom, fewer chances to wallow, feeling engaged with something that presumably you decided at one point was important (say, kids). Ideally, you're sacrificing for a cause.
"I like being at battle stations" at work, one of my friends likes to say. He likes feeling like he's putting out fires.
I like feeling busy at work too, especially when I like my job, as I do now. I do not like feeling like I can't sleep, can't wind down, can't unplug from the screens and the lists, can't connect to the humans and the big picture.
How crazy are you right now?
Music: "Crazy in Love"
