What'd I Miss?

Remember back in the 1970s when some do-gooder would give up television for a month and then write about it?

They would take a break from M*A*S*H, Welcome Back Kotter, and Kojak. By the end of the experiment, the spouses would be honeymooners again, and their formerly slack-jawed, glassy eyed children would be speaking three languages and playing chamber music while mom oil painted and discussed Voltaire with dad while he recited Shakespeare's sonnets.

I always hated those people. 

Their smug superiority. Their strident puritianism, like the reformed whore in her starched black dress and Amercian Gothic severe bun raging about sin and virtue.

When I took a month off from Facebook and Twitter I had these schoolmarmy types in mind. And I knew I would return to blog about it and post it on Facebook and Twitter.

So this will not be a soul searching rant about how Facebook and Twitter, in the wrong (my) hands can reduce the entire spectrum of human experience and interaction, like a Shrinky-Dink, into a glowing palm sized rectangle.

Instead, I will say that I learned just one thing:

Sometimes we like to think of ourselves as having a "real me" that is separate from what we do day to day. I think this is an illusion. There is no "real me". We are, in fact, exactly what we are doing at any particular moment.

So, at one moment I am wearing tan shorts and a red shirt listening to my friend talk about how her boss is a jerk and maybe its time to find a new job and while she is annoyed she is also kind of excited about a new opportunity and meeting new people and learn a new business and I am drinking a martini while I stand leaning against the bar with one arm on the back of the barstool feeling the martini's magical cool warmth trickle into my chest....

And at the next moment I am wearing tan shorts and a red shirt listening to my friend talk about hey there's another like on my post with the link to my blog who is it oh its John he left a comment I feel good he liked it i'll like his comment what's that her boss is a jerk that's too bad let me post a quick comment that plays off John's comment ha ha that's a pretty good one if I say so myself wait let me take a picture of my martini and post it i bet David is the first one to like it so she might look for a new job huh hey a tweet awesome "Community" has been renewed for another season I'll re-tweet so glad Dan Harmon came back as showrunner.

I am 45 years old. Statistically, its likely that I have fewer moments, or "Me"s left than I have already used up.

Spend wisely.