The Greenhouse Effect

A few months back I wrote a long blog about how I thought that online communication through Myspace, Facebook, texting, blogging, twittering (which I still refuse to engage in), and even emailing is cutting off the circulation of human-to human connection. I also touched on the fact that we are becoming reliant upon these nomenclatures of correspondence in lieu of the written word, a phone call, or a face to face coffee chat.

One of my friends, let's just call him Bolt, approached me months ago after reading my blog and said he strongly disagreed with me. I couldn't understand why. What is wrong with trying to reach out to those we can, physically, wholly, and in real time? What's wrong with refusing to become robots of response in a world that encourages us to keep a rapid fire digital diary?

Well, I think a retraction is in order. I think Bolt may have a point.

I do still believe that humans need interaction. People need to hug, to cuddle, to talk things out, to get mail, to hold hands, to whisper, to laugh- in person, BUT for those of us that are chained to our desks, (me...) we spend the majority of our lives disconnected from reality. We don't feel the wind, we don't hear the rain, we don't feel the sun from Monday through Friday, 9-5pm, It's sad, but temporary. Truthfully, I don't even know what the weather is like outside most days, unless I can accurately judge the way the shadows glow on the building outside of my office.

This harsh reality makes it difficult to feel anything beyond the blue cast of our computer screens, let alone the warmth of someones hand or the reassurance of someones voice when we are at our respective places of employment. A lot of times it is in those moments that we most need a kind word. So where else can we get that much needed encouragement besides what my Great Uncle calls the "interweb".

This is where my fellow bloggers, my Facebook and my Myspace friends have fused the digital with the real- I am convinced that even though there are trillions of data exchanges and keyboard combinations talking place in the course of one day- I can still feel the thump of a human heart beating, I can see the tilt of a concerned head, I can feel the effects of a heartfelt prayer, a whisper of understanding, a smile of joy.

Lately, I have been candid with emotions, struggles, failures, and fears. I blog because I really feel that those who read and respond care...most of these people I have never met and may never meet, and the others are those who may be miles away from me, or even down the hall in which they feel compelled to stop by my desk and make sure everything is ok.

This is exactly how we off set the unsubstantial effects that can be developed through flat, thin, one-dimensional robotic responses, by using words that do not simply "advertise" but empathize.

Miss Green sent me this link: Walk On, and really inspired me to, well plainly, shut up. We all have obstacles, some much greater than others. Some obstacles are mentally disabling, some are physically disabling. Some of these obstacles are imagined road blocks. I know sometimes I create "I can't-isms", to give myself an endorsed reason to shy away from my full potential.

After watching this video, (and sending it to my mom), she sent me an email asking what my "final day on the PGA" would look like. What are those moments that I am waiting for? She said that she wants to celebrate these milestones with me when I overcome the fears that hold me back.

So here is what my "final day on the PGA tour" would look like:

-Have my book on the New York Times bestseller list
-Watch my daughter finger paint her first piece of art and frame it
-Be in a period film by a renown producer
-Celebrate the day I begin "working from home"
-Hear a song of mine in a film that is playing in theaters nationally

Big goals? Yes. Crazy? Maybe. Perhaps impossible? No. Anything is possible.

I encourage you to allow your online relationships to be real. I know I am lucky enough to feel like mine are. I get encouragement in the most important of times, when I am in the middle of a mundane Monday or caught in a long spans of the same. We can all grow by being honest, open, and willing to invest in the "mist" of online companionship.

Besides, if you work full time and spend the majority of your life in the same place, it is the mental traveling that gets us where we need to be.

Who knows maybe our offices are acting like greenhouses incubating our potential. You can't fully appreciate anything in life, unless you know what it's like to be without it. In order for us to fully enjoy and drink in what the earth has to offer us there is a season for us to be controlled, pruned, and locked inside. When we finally get the opportunity to be planted where we belong, we will appreciate the open spaces, the blue sky and the soft dance of the rain.

Continually believing that you have something to offer, a story to tell, and one that is worth reading, listening, or even, yes...twittering about- means that you are still alive, and keeping your eyes up, searching for the patches of blue in the sky.

Thank you to all of my bloggers, Facebookers, Myspacers, and my family and friends that encourage me to keep my head up, I promise I will always do the same for you.