Close The Blinds!!!

Article in the Times today about a new condo going up in downtown that is all glass and what that says about our society. We know what it says. We're a bunch of self-obessesed narcissists who think everyone else is fascinated with the mundane routines of our lives which we elevate to soap opera levels thanks to technology and the changing values of our society.

I write this with tongue firmly planted in cheek. What I'm about to post about is the exact thing I'm guilty of too. The only difference is that I write this cloaked in anonymity, which makes me an even bigger hypocrite. Of course, the few people who read this know perfectly well who I am and those that read me and don't could easily find out.

One of the reasons that I don't identify myself on here is also my partial justification for this post. Most of my posts here are pretty mundane (the laundry, the subway, the city, the day-to-day aggravations and moments of happiness in life.) But some posts are, if not deeper, more personal. Some talk about things that that while are nothing for me to be embarrassed about are also not the kinds of things I want to shout about from the rooftops. I don't have in my profile that I'm looking for ADD drugs and I'm looking to get laid (that was one I saw on a former co-worker's myspace page). That's in part because I don't want ADD drugs, the other part of that person's desire I share, but so does everyone else. It's kind of like saying "I'm looking to eat dinner."

I don't know if my former co-worker's folks read her page, or her colleagues. That's that person's business and while I take pleasure in those dumb enough to post pictures and other tidbits that comeback to bite them in the ass (most recently example, a police officer who writes of his desire to "do lines off a stripper's ass") I'll save that for another time. I do know I don't need to be that open. I do this in the hopes that by writing a little every day here, eventually I'll build a habit that I will be able to apply to more creative endeavors. Honestly, it hasn't happened yet. I know it will take awhile. I also do it as way to get out of myself a little. I know, you write about yourself to get out of yourself, man what an ego. It's true, I have a big ego. But I also spend most of my time stuck in my head in self-centered fear. Doing this provides me some relief and I won't apologize for that.

Having said all this, the reason I'm babbling is that somewhere there has to be a fine line between creating an outlet for expression, opinion, whatever and and an outlet for exploitation, glorification and celebration for all things me. All of the defining products of our new age, iPods, blogs, cellphones, etc., are about the individual and moving us all further away from shared experience and it is shared experience that makes us a society. There is a push to ban iPods from the New York marathon. One of the reasons is safety, and that makes sense. But another is that one of the points of running in a marathon is about being part of a group with a singular goal. I like the idea of trying to be part of something bigger and you can't do that if you're dancing to your own drummer.

But that's what everyone wants to do today. Hey, no one is saying we should all be exactly alike and I'm not suggesting doing away with iPods (if you are dumb enough to wear one on subway platforms or city streets, that's your problem). But the problem is it's not enough anymore for people to march to your own drummer. They have to show everyone else how they do it. I don't delude myself that anything I write here will be of great interest to anyone other than myself and hopefully a few people for whom my posts strike a chord or bring a smile.

A blog is a weird place to advocate for people to appreciate what little privacy we have left. It used to be that someone could call you and if you didn't want to talk you didn't answer. Now they can call your cellphone. They can find out if you are online. We're all connected. Isn't it great?

Ultimately, it's up to me decide how much of the noise out there I want to take in and disregard as well as how much of a contribution to it I want to make. But in a society where many are opting for glass windows, all of this is getting a little more difficult.