44. Texting After Thirty

Elasticity took over the house. Walls elongated and shrunk. Music had a new quality to it, a deepness and hollowness all at the same time.  —Hey man, he called out to his friend, I can feel my blood pressure going down. Or is it up? My heart speeds up a bit, then I notice it and I get a little lightheaded. –Dude, answered Jack, What the hell are you talking about? It’s time for Musing Interruptus. Hello and welcome to Musing Interruptus. Thank you for clicking and thank you for listening. There is nothing like an oh-no moment after sending a message. Either because it can be misunderstood or because you have a lapsus, you didn’t mean to write that or you were under the influence and thought it was a good idea at the time. This has happened to me. Several times. Including, texting the precise person I was not supposed to the -remember we are not supposed to tell you this- message. Mind you, this happened before covid, so I can’t blame it on covid long term effects. The thing is, the unconscious will have its way, one way or another. That can mean blurting things out or miscommunicating. I mean, not for your unconscious, your unconscious meant to do it, it is you, the unenlightened fool who is trying so hard to repress it, engaging in a tug-o-war like struggle with the other part of yourself, that is as free and expansive as possible. That is a recipe for disaster or freedom, depends on who ask. I think as we age, the repressor gets weak, and succumbs more and more to the freer one… you know… the ID. Why are we so afraid of the ID in society? Granted, limits must exist. That is not up for discussion. Responsibility should not be understood as the counterpart of freedom. On the contrary, complying with responsibility frees up space. Emotional space. Anyhoooooow, texting after thirty can be challenging. Take for instance those funny little faces and stickers. I’ve seen people struggle with the meaning of emoticons. Can we just all agree to disagree and explain everything with words which, by the way, can also be misunderstood for reasons of basic sentence construction, a hiccup with subject verb agreement, split infinitives, punctuation, and not following a general line of thought. Case in point, exhibit A. this podcast. But I was talking about erring on the opposite side of interpretation via selection of words to express ideas and feelings. I’m not saying get rid of emoticons all together, but maybe they don’t substitute the written word. Emoticons, stickers, gifs, they are all great, nifty, even, but they are the equivalent of a child making faces and having the parents guess what they are feeling or need. —Wait, wait, wait, dude… interjected Jack, but talking about your feelings is hard. It makes me feel weak inside.     Ok, so you have a point there, but it’s not reason enough not to speak your mind. Once you learn how to articulate your feelings, you can identify what you want and assertively ask for it. It’s that simple. Continue reading