Loneliness or something like it
Posted by Ryan Woods
Everyone shouldn't have a blog. I shouldn't have a blog. But I believe that the blogsite fulfills a need that each and every one of us has within us. The blogger replaces the barber shop of yesteryear, the dinner table of Leave it to Beaver, and the chat rooms of my childhood. People want to talk and they want to be listened to. Everyone desires an audience of some kind. Two out of three blogers have nothing to say, oddly enough three out of four human beings have something to say...Which is quite an odd paradox that warrants further discussion and even probably should be looked into by some official sounding committee of men in black suits with nice silk ties that their wives bought for a very sinful amount at Nordstrom.
Some bloggers have so much botteled up inside them, so much to share, that listening becomes a daily task. Not a chore, not at all, for in fact these people very often do have much of value to say. But it becomes work to keep up with the voice of those who need listening. Still others once had much to say but have now found themselves mute. Discovering that a) people stopped listening. b) they ran out of things to say. or c) there's too many good movies to watch starring Tim Curry. Whatever the case you fall within one of three categories, the listener, the speaker, or the lost. It is as Mom Teresa once said:
I have found that one well spoken word renders the heart soft as Indian rain. For when the heart breaks open and streams of living water break forth you shall understand what the Great Teacher meant when he said 'Go and do likewise'...am I right? Come on I'm freakin' Mo T! Bunch of freakin' idiots you are! Somebody find me some frikin' garbage!The tragic tale is that at the end of her life Mother Teresa looked and acted more similar to a Jersey hobo addicted to crack and garbage sniffing than to the precious little woman that she had lived as her whole life. And so with regard to Mother Teresa I would say that it is best that she never had a blog. Just imagine the types of things that she would try to say. God bless her heart.
And for my fifth point...everyone wants to be heard. Maybe you've tricked yourself into believing that you're opinion or thoughts are not worthwhile or of any value. But in your heart you crave silence that is broken by your voice sharing with someone who genuinely listens and cares. What we're lacking is more places to talk, and not just that meaningless chatter that we're surrounded by every single moment of every day, but heart stuff, laughter, joys, sorrows, pain, honesty, and poetry. We are constantly surround by noise, noise that kills and deafens the soul and squelches that calling of our heart to speak and to listen. Where will we find those silent places? Where will we learn to listen, to be quiet and still so that we can hear people talk again? What if God also is waiting for someone to listen? How freakliciously weird would that be?