A Society of Static

via Daily Prompt: Static

There’s a lot going on in my head right now. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Post-college life, California mud slides, school and work balance, the Time’s Up movement, paying off college loans, building a wall. It’s important to me. It’s important to the world. There are a lot of important things in this life, each varying from individual to individual, but they’re getting harder and harder to see. Today we live in a society of static.

At the end of each day, all I used to worry worry about was trying to figure out how the sun would set without losing its flame. That’s right. I’d watch the sun go down behind the ocean and wonder how in the world it could get through that incredible mass of water and still come up in Australia on fire. It was completely impossible to me (and in reality as well… I was only little and didn’t quite understand science yet, cut me some slack.).

Since that time, my purest and most innocent thoughts have been disrupted. First came practicality: go to school, get a good job, raise a family. Then came conformity: this is how you shall solve a math equation, behave in public, structure your future. And finally, it seems that politics have captured the attention of many, as corrupt and futile as they may be.

In this midst of this madness, this blinding noise, it is disturbingly easy to lose sight of what is important. Yes, get an education. Yes, work hard. Yes, build a future. But don’t forget to keep in mind exactly what you’re doing it for. For happiness? For family? Self fulfillment? To please your parents? To provide medicine for the unhealthy? To build a home for those who do not have one? To help others find God, or whatever it is that you believe is out there?

Without a purpose, we will surely become lost, so turn down the knob and quiet that deafening static. Listen to that part of your soul that has been trying to peek through like a sprout in the dirt. Quiet the social media, politics, and news, the ‘shoulds,’ ‘coulds,’ and ‘woulds.’ Quiet the voices of your parents, peers, and society. There will only ever be one voice that will truly speak to you, and it is your own. Shhh… there it is. Now go listen and see and live.