For those of you who haven’t yet grown the curiosity to look it up, I felt I should explain the meaning of my blog’s title, Deliciae.
It is a Latin noun for what we would call a “delight” or “pleasure”, sometimes even “darling” or “sweetheart”. Some may even recognize its similarity to “delicious” or “delicate”.
All of these words encompass what I’ve wanted this blog to project: life’s little, delicate, and beautiful things.
While listening to an old favorite band, Atreyu, I remembered a quote I had come across and saved long ago, spoken by the vocalist, Alexander Varkatzas. It reads as so:
“I was driving to a friend’s house, kind of daydreaming and the sky was this gorgeous shade of pink.
I just couldn’t take my eyes off it, it felt like I really forgot to breathe, and forgot about life in all its obsessive materialism for just a few seconds.
When I snapped out of it, I almost rammed into the car in front of me.It just made me think of how many perfect sunsets we miss at work or school or how many beautiful starry nights are spent on the Internet or in front of a TV.
We do all these materialistic things and we seem to neglect that each sunset is totally different than the last or the next and that the wind will never blow exactly the same way. It’s always 9-5, better do this, do that, deadlines, excess, bullshit that just isn’t that important.
Now, I am as guilty as the rest, but for a few blissful seconds it was remarkably clear.”
(Alexander Varkatzas)
As an avid stargazer, his mention of beautiful starry nights we may have missed sitting on the Internet struck a sad chord within me. Have you gazed up there lately? On a quiet, dark night, it gives you a feeling like no other.
Unfortunately, I never really hear my cohorts speak of delicate, and beautiful night skies; constellations have lost their meaning and origin, and a lot of us are too occupied to look up and feel the intensity of colors in a morning sky – something little, yes, but so powerful.
In the ebb and flow of the work week and the strong influence of technology, I too forget at times.
I’ve spent, or I should say, wasted an unbelievable amount of time on the internet, social media websites and the vapid, mind numbing games and applications that come with them (read: Facebook). But that was before I decided to overhaul the way I use my “life” time. Before this overhaul, I naively surrounded myself with quotes I never truly followed such as Jane Austen’s:
“Teach us, that we may feel the importance of every day, of every hour, as it passes.”
And I would have tear-outs of old articles such as this one from a Newsweek edition in 2008 entitled, “What Old Age Taught Me” in which 91-year-old actor and film producer, Kirk Douglas, says he truly believes “the best is yet to be.” However, I never gave it a glance or any more thought like I once had.
Now I try to take these once cherished items back to heart. I realized that, after wasting two days of my vacation browsing Facebook, watching “Lost” on Netflix, and checking my email ten times a day, I had to do something different with my precious time.
I didn’t want to get sucked into the “what’s his status now? …and now? And now?” addiction, so I stopped visiting Facebook for a whole two weeks.
It was difficult at first, but now I don’t feel the need to look at pictures of an acquaintance’s dad’s birthday party in a different state or check the status of all 300 some-odd friends I added. (And, let me tell you, it is nice!)
I care to read some of these things, but my mind can only store so much information on others before becoming too cluttered, and whatever Timmy, Janice, and Emily ate for breakfast is not really something I’d care to store in my already crowded memory shelf.
Unless I want to contact and keep up with a few close friends or get in touch with new ones, I try to avoid Facebook altogether. It’s a little scary to think that I was once yearning for this useless information. I was addicted, as many people still are.
My brain is no longer the attention-deficit mess that it used to be. Cutting off Facebook time and other mindless internet browsing has done wonders. I have time (that I never knew I had) to pursue more productive endeavors, and take a breather outside and watch the sun go down. I am so grateful for it.
Of course, I do believe technology has helped us tremendously in being ever-so-convenient. It even helps us spread the appreciation for beautiful sunsets and the little things. There is such a thing as too much, however.
The planet has never been more interconnected, and yet, could technology be taking away from our relationships and our lives?
What do you think, readers?
photo credit: Mayr | Neil Ritchie | livepine | laurenseagull
Deliciae 