Is WORK A Four Letter Word?

Hmmmmm, can work actually be fun? Am I really THAT stupid? What kind of a question is that? Of course it can't. Everybody knows that work HAS to suck. In fact I think it's one of the Ten Commandments or at the very least it's written in the Declaration Of Independence.



I know it has to be written down somewhere, some kind of Law that says that work and fun should never coexist. Like oil and water, they just don't mix, no matter how much you try and shake 'em up.





In fact, I think work is one of those four letter words that can only be mentioned in certain circumstances. You know what I'm talkin' about, the ones that will get your mouth washed out with soap if you utter them in front of the wrong people.



But I find myself questioning this logic. Who started this whole thing of thinking that whatever you do to earn a living has to make you completely miserable? I don't think it could have started as far back as the Caveman days, could it? I mean, they didn't really have to earn a living, so to speak. Their main thing in life was survival.





Whether is was scroungin' around for food or protecting themselves against a low flyin' Pterodactyl, survival was key. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, perhaps this WAS the first instance of earning a living. After all, you need to be alive to live.



Before the exchange of so called money came into existence, the Barter System was the method of choice for getting ahead in life. If you wanted something, you better have something to trade for it. Which is kinda funny because bartering is still in use today.





In fact, just the other day, I watched a video of a guy that bartered his way from a red paper clip on up to a house. Yes, I said A HOUSE! Which he has since gone on to trade for a Cafe'. It was actually a pretty amazing story, well documented and no doubt he was able to meet so many people and have quite a few great experiences along the way.




I guess some things never get old. Free Trade has been a major building block of the world as we know it. Without it, where would we be today? One can only guess at all the things we wouldn't be able to enjoy.





Here again though, I'd have to think that this method of survival probably wasn't a whole lot of fun back in the ol' days. No doubt either one or both parties would feel as if they got ripped off and wanted to cancel the trade but making somebody mad in those days probably wasn't a good idea. So what if you ended up with a purple Dinosaur, at least you'd be able to feed your family.



Apparently the first use of an actual Monetary System didn't come around until about 650 B.C. Perhaps this is when work first began to be considered dreadful. Once you had to break your back for someone else in order to feed your family, I'd have to think this was also about the same time that work became a four letter word. I can hear the bitchin' and moanin' from here.





Jeez, if it started this far back, no wonder people are so angry about having to go to work. Generation after generation, passing down their disdain for the mere thought of the word work would no doubt create an endless amount of hatred towards the mere thought alone. Not to mention the actual physical task itself.



Yet work is what me must do. Must do to survive in this world. And for the most part, if we want to get ahead in life, we must work even harder. Therefore it stands to reason that if we want more out of life, it will come at the cost of living an even more miserable existence. Something about this just doesn't seem very appealing, at least not to me anyway.





Kinda seems like an inspiration killer for the most part. The harder you work, the more miserable you are? Just not making any sense to me. There HAS to be some sort of a mistake here. Who on earth invented this system anyway? Some kind of masochist? Must have been. Nobody in his right mind would have devised such a dream killer.



And to add insult to injury, who came up with this schedule of having to work five days and only have two off? Sounds pretty damn lopsided if you ask me. C'mon, doing something that you absolutely despise for five long, miserable days of the week, only to get two days to attempt some form of recovery and then to go right back to hell for another five days. Obviously this system is seriously flawed.



I wonder if anyone else has realized this? I mean somebody else has to have noticed by now that this entire work thing, this system as it were is messed up and in a big way. And if they have noticed, why on earth haven't they done something to fix it?





Come to think of it, I guess they tried, if you can call it that. Yeah, they have implemented the four day, ten hours a day, work week in certain instances and while that might help, it's surely not the best answer.



Either is the telecommuting thing, that's most likely the best alternative as it eliminates lots of the nightmare of the five day workathon but it doesn't completely remove the issue of spending your days performing a task that you hate.



So where does that leave us? We know we need money to survive. In most cases, in order to make money, we have to work. Ok, so basically what it breaks down to is we need to work to survive. But where does it say that we have to hate what we do for work?





I checked out the Ten Commandments and didn't see anything about it in there. Same with the Declaration, nothing there either. I even went as far as Googling 'MUST HATE YOUR JOB' and couldn't find anything anywhere that stated that you must be miserable for a minimum of forty hours per week, half days on Saturdays and most Holidays when the rest of your family is at the beach. Nope, nothin'.



Then how did all of this BS get started in the first place? Perhaps it was handed down to us by our parents? That along with all the other outside influences that helped shape our upbringing, who undoubtedly passed down the information that they received as children.



Who knows, maybe it was our own assumption, based on seeing just how unhappy our parents were Monday through Friday and realizing at an early age just how precious the weekends were. How those two days were the reward for surviving the previous five days.

Regardless of how it happened, we grew up knowing that work must suck. No doubt whatsoever. That's why it's called work instead of fun. Notice the different amount of letters in each word? Yes, work is a four letter word and fun isn't. I have a feelin' it was planned that way.



Ok then, what are we gonna do about this? Nothing? Just continue on status quo? Or can we change this entire scenario around so that we're able to enjoy our work? Yes, I said it. Crazy as it may seem, I believe there is a great possibility of earning a living while doing something that you truly enjoy.



Stay with me on this. Think about it for just a second. Is it entirely out of the realm of possibility to believe that you could make money doing something you enjoy? Of course not. Think about all of those people all over the world, right now, who are making a living doing what it is that you like to do. So why NOT you? Why not just go for it? What's stopping you?

Even if you start off on a small scale, kind of a part time thing, just pick something you enjoy doing and get started doing it. After hours, evenings, weekends, doesn't really matter. While we all say that we don't have any extra time as it is, I think you'll find that even if you just sacrifice a couple hours of TV here 'n there, you'll be surprised at all you can get accomplished.



Just get going on something that you're passionate about and see where it takes you. I'll bet the next thing you know, you'll be making other sacrifices to allow you more time to pursue your dream. I promise it will be so worth it.

Before you know it you're rollin' and you'll find that there just isn't enough time in a day to do all you want to do towards accomplishing your goal. And let me tell you, that's a great problem to have. Next thing you know, you'll actually be enjoying your weekdays! Maybe even more than your weekends. Can you even imagine that? Getting to a point where your weekends are more stressful than your weekdays? Who'd a thunk it!



So if you find that you're like most everyone else out there, at least those that still have jobs and dread Mondays more than anything, maybe it's time you started thinking of work as anything but a four letter word.

If you can relate to work being a nightmare, I'd enjoy hearing about it in my comments and if you enjoyed this Post, I'd appreciate it if you'd share it with your friends.

Do Dreams Have An Expiration Date?

Lately I find that I'm having to ask myself this question quite often. I mean, does there come a point when you just need to say forget it and push the delete button? I'm not so much referring to the dreams that you have while you're asleep, who on earth can make any sense of those?

The dreams I'm referring to are basically daydreams, the ones that inspire you, motivate you, the unexplainable forces that drive you forward without any apparent reason. At least the reasons aren't apparent to others. Noone else can see what motivates us on the inside.



If they could, it probably wouldn't be a good thing as people, for the most part, aren't usually very supportive of someone elses dreams and aspirations. Nope, it's much better to keep your dreams to yourself or if by chance you're lucky enough to have a significant other that is totally behind you in everything you do, then perhaps you can spill the beans to them.

But you have to be careful because for the most part, others want you to do well in life, follow your passions, live your dreams but only up to a certain point. Once your life, in their eyes, becomes better than theirs, then it's time to throw a bunch of negativity your way in an effort to knock you back down to reality. Or at least the reality that they want you to be living.



But if dreams actually do have a deadline of sorts, that would really suck. To know that if your dreams don't come true in a certain amount of time that you'll have to chuck 'em, just throw them away. Erase them from your thoughts. That would be like throwing all of your hope right out the window. And where the hell would you be without hope?

Pretty much nowhere. Hope is more than likely the main ingredient in all of our dreams. Hope is the basis for everything that drives us forward. Striving for better. Better lives. Better relationships. Better everything.

Surely hope can't have an expiration date for if it did, we'd all be in big trouble. To lose ones hope, even worse, to just give up on hope pretty much spells disaster. If not the end of the road then I'm sure you can see the end of the road from there.



Oh, to lose all hope can be an inner defeat that is very hard to recover from. At least from my experience anyway. It wasn't but a year or two ago, if even that long that I had pretty much lost all of my hope.

Long story short, I basically lost everything I owned along with quite a few other things that I didn't actually own, I just had a ton of money invested in them. And if this wasn't bad enough, along with all my possessions went all of my hopes, my dreams and my motivation.

Yep, right down the drain, never to be seen or heard from again. Whoosh, every reason I ever had for getting out of bed in the morning was gone. My worst fear was coming true.

Losing your stuff is one thing but when you lose your why, it's a whole different ballgame. As long as you have your motivation, you can always get your stuff back. But without motivation, you're basically over and done. Destined for a life of zero.



Luckily for me, I didn't give up and I've been able to recover a good amount of my motivation. That's not to say that I don't struggle with it daily but I am getting better and staying on a forward path. Most of this has come from remembering that no matter what, I can't give up.

And as I've gained back most of my motivation, slowly but surely my hope is beginning to return as well. Hope for a new beginning, for a better future, for a better life. And I'm super grateful for this because without motivation and hope, it's pretty much couch time from here on out. That's if you're lucky enough to have a couch you can lay on.



But even though things are starting to go in a more positive direction, there are still so many missing pieces to my life puzzle that it's not always easy to remain focused and keep my chin up as they say. While some days are more difficult than others, it's still a decision I have to make every day. Keep on pushin' forward or just pack it in?

If I sit there and just think about all of the things that are missing in my life, all of the things that I had hoped would be a gimme by this time, then there's no doubt I'm gonna be disappointed. Completely understandable I would think.

So that's why I can't allow myself to sit there and think about what I don't have. Instead, I have to continue to concentrate on what I do have and what, if I continue to work hard, I WILL have in the future.

Speaking of future, this brings me back to my original question regarding dreams having an expiration date. This doesn't so much apply to any of my previous dreams as I actually only have two that have survived all of the melee of the last couple years.



One that I constantly struggle with, finding myself unable to let go of but I know that at some point in the near future, like it or not I will be forced to come to grips with making a decision. I remain hopeful that before I have to make that decision, the outcome that I desire will manifest itself and I will be able to consider it a dream of mine that actually came true. Fingers and toes crossed, that's for sure.

The other dream, as it turns out has a much better chance of coming true now than it ever had of materializing in my previous life. It's kinda strange how that worked out. Kinda like the last domino standing, remaining by default.



Ok then, along with rebuilding my life I'm finding that I need to make a new Dream List. Sounds a bit crazy as all throughout our lives, dreams just seem to come to us from who knows where. It's not so much that we have to create them, they just seem to be born from our passions, our desires.

But what do you do when almost all of your life long dreams have been wiped out basically overnight and you're forced to start a new list? You can't just fill it up with all those old dreams. Most of them no longer apply. Either they bring with them a sour feeling or they are no longer applicable to your new life.

Luckily for me I still have two dreams I can hang onto. Well, one for sure, the other is either going to manifest itself soon or I will unfortunately have to remove it from the List. One way or another, that will only leave me one and luckily, the remaining dream covers alot of territory so it would take quite alot to either have it completely manifest itself or to be removed.



It's not like there's a DreamMart or a House of Dreams that you can just bring in a coupon and pick up a few dreams. Nope, not gonna be that easy. I'm gonna have to do some soul searchin' to come up with some new ones. That, and I hope that my new life will entail some new experiences and along with those experiences will come new dreams.


Dreams that I have yet to even imagine. Knowing that I'm a major Dreamer, I have a pretty good feeling that I should be able to come up with something worthwhile before too long. Something outrageous enough to be considered unobtainable which is basically the description of one of my dreams.



And as far as dreams having an expiration date, it's possible but I'd like to think that it's entirely up to you whether they do or not. I think the safest bet is to treat them like a gallon of milk at the Grocery Store, they put the newest containers at the back of the rack. So I guess I have no other option.... but to KEEP DIGGIN'!

If you can relate to creating new dreams, I'd enjoy hearing about it and if you enjoyed this Post I'd appreciate it if you would share it with your friends.

Dang Dude, DON'T Ding Me!

WHY? WHY? WHY? Why do people INSIST on trying to park as close to the front entrance of the store as possible? I just don't get it. What is the true benefit of this endeavor? In fact, is there really any type of benefit whatsoever?

I'm sure you've seen them before, those people that do lap after lap in front of the Store, in search of an opening to squeeze their Pinto into. Just one space closer and that could mean 10 less footsteps they'll have to go to reach the promised land.



It's the funniest thing because as you watch them continue on their ridiculous Parade around the lot, like clockwork, time and time again a car leaves and a space opens up just behind where they are now.




You can see their eyes hit the rear view mirror as they spot the movement and then it's instant decision time. If they immediately throw it in reverse, it's possible that they might be able to grab that spot. Only one problem, the car that just left that spot is right on their ass and so they can't back up. SHIT!




Option two is to haul ass around the lot and come back in from the same direction you just came. The wheels begin turning inside their head and as the smoke begins to flow from their ears, you can see it in their face that the decision is excruciatingly brutal for them. Such a dilemma.




Next thing you know, they FLOOR IT in an attempt to get around this section of parked cars, so they can get back to heading in their original direction. SCREEEEECH, the smoke start billowing from the front tires of their beat up old minivan and there off.





If you listen closely, you can hear Mom screamin' "Hang on kids, Mommas found us a parkin' space!" So with kids and car seats flyin' around, they're off to their new parking place. Woo Hoo, can't wait to get there.


About three quarters of the way there, she spots somethin' up ahead. And it doesn't look good. Sure as shit! Somebody else is just pulling into that coveted spot that she wanted so dearly. HER SPOT!



Are you f'n kidding me?, she yells to her 9, 8, 8, 6, 4, 3, 1 and 8 month old kids (all from different Daddys of course) as they gradually get up off the floor after slamming into the backs of the seats as a result of her slamming on her brakes so damn hard. Seemingly in unison, all the kids (at least the ones that can speak) ask, Mommy, what's wrong?




Oh, nothing kids, it's just that some idiot stole Mommys parking place and now we're gonna have to find a new one, that's all. But we'll find one alot better than that one anyway. It will be a whole lot closer to the Store.

As she slowly drives by her arch enemy, she notices something that seems oddly familiar with the car. Yes, something seems very familiar about it but she just can't place it. Then it finally dawns on her, it was another one of the Parking Lot Vultures and this is the one that had been following her around in circles for 45 minutes.



She can't help but be grateful that the spot went to a kindred spirit, someone of the same ilk, another of the relentless CloseParkers. So rather than give the driver the one fingered salute as she had originally intended, she gave a quick Rose Parade wave and a hint of a smile....and she was off again, on her search for another upfronter.

Even as upset as she was, she still had to give props to one of her kind, one that never gave up on their pursuit of the closest space. After all, she had no idea how long they themselves had been searching for their spot but it could been much longer than she had been conducting her own surveillance so again, she had to be slightly happy for them.



Suddenly, snapping out of her self induced trance, she spotted something very familiar ahead. Something very bright and shiny, sure to attract the attention of any female. But these were the lights she'd spent all morning searching for.

Unable to resist their calling, she had no other option but to drive in that direction, the direction of the lights. She knew she was goin' the right way as they were getting brighter and brighter by the second, she knew she was almost there!



Suddenly, everything changed to bright red. That was her signal, everything she had been waiting for. She knew that when the lights changed from a bright white to a glowing red, that was her calling. She knew she had to get there....and get there NOW!

Sitting there, she just knew her timing was perfect. Finally all of her effort was gonna to pay off. This was her spot and she was gonna grab it, no matter what. After all, she followed all of the FrontParker rules, basically stating that you drive around in circles until either you crash into a parked car from being so dizzy or else a spot finally opens up and you can park. Sounds simple enough, that's for sure.



Sitting there for quite some time, she began to ask herself what in the hell could be taking this idiot so long to get moving? She waited for the lights, the back~up lights signaling that the car was leaving. Then the brake lights came on, signaling the end of the backing out process and once the red lights go out, that will signal the beginning of forward progress meaning she can FINALLY get in her spot.

Phew, that took forever but it was sooooo worth it. I'm gonna be right up front. Mission accomplished. Hey, wait a minute! As the car that just pulled out began to drive away, the spot that it just vacated was mysteriously missing. How can that be? I KNOW it just pulled out of there somewhere, yet there isn't an open space anywhere to be found.


Out of the corner of her eye, she notices a sparkle of sorts. Again, women just don't miss sparkly things. As it turns out, it's a bit of glare coming off of the window of a car door that's just beginning to open. Then for some reason it starts a kind of blinking effect, kind of an on and off shimmering.



Turns out the flickering is being caused by the door banging relentlessly off of the door on the car parked next to it. If her window wasn't rolled up, no doubt she would have heard all of this noise earlier but now that she knows it's another like minded CloseParker that stole her parking place, she is left with no other choice but to drive on, knowing that she was defeated by a worthy foe.

Perhaps it's time for a new approach. Well, not necessarily new but not often attempted in the world of CloseParkers. Yes, it's thought of more as a kind of default method rather than the chosen method. It's known in certain circles as the sit there in one place and friggin' wait method.



I'm sure you've seen this type of Parker before. Yep, they're the ones that seemingly sit right in the middle of the aisle, no way to get by them on either side, waiting for the parking space that doesn't even exist.

And the worst part of these idiots is that they'll continue to sit there, even though they know damn well you're stuck behind them, unable to go anywhere, pinned in by some other CloseParker that was following them around in the circle of hell.




I guess they figure that at some point one of these spots just HAS to open up and with any luck, they'll be close enough to grab it. The riskier of the bunch will sometimes roll down their window, yelling out to random shoppers walking by, "Hey, ya leavin'?" in an attempt to head 'em off at the pass.



I'm sure you've seen this scenario play out before as well. The shopper has just battled the crowds inside, barely surviving the endless line~up at the Checkout counter, just wanting to make it out their car in one piece, unload their packages into their trunk and enjoy a nice, peaceful drive home. Sorry, not gonna happen!

Oh no, now they have some psycho in a minivan right on their heels (as if another car is going to drive in between them and steal their spot), stalking them all the way to their car. Once they arrive, all the sighs start, the revving of the engine, all of the under the breath comments. C'mon already.....Jeez, I haven't got all day here....Hey, other people need to buy some stuff here too....



You're just prayin' it doesn't turn into a huge episode of Parking Lot Rage because that's just gonna screw up the parking lot that much more. Then it's gonna get even uglier than it is already. But you can tell by most of the cars that the CloseParkers drive that they pretty much couldn't care less if their car sustains any more damage. Who knows, it might actually straighten out a previously dented area.


And so the victim finally finishes filling their trunk, gets in their car and hurriedly gets the hell outta there, allowing the minivan to pry its way in to the spot. Back and forth....back and forth...time and again, it almost happens and then about the nineteenth try, Voila! Like an old used can opener with cat food still stuck on it, it wasn't pretty but she got the job done.




Only one problem though. She's parked so close on the drivers side that she can't even get her door open! Of course, she tries it anyway, knowing full well that's it's NOT gonna happen but after slamming her door into the side of the car she's squeezed in next to about 10 times, she's forced to give up. After all, she's wasting precious shopping time, not to mention the fact that the kids are starting to scream even louder than before.

So she had everybody pile out the passenger side and begins to start her wonderful day of shopping. Sure, it was a struggle getting a parking space this close but it was oh so worth it. Yeah, it took about 45 minutes to find the one but again, she's so close that it's almost like she's a VIP or somethin'. Doesn't get any better than this.

Finally, getting the quadruple stroller all set up, they begin their journey to the entrance of the store. Oh, it's not very far but when you're draggin' 8 illegitimate kids with you, it's a struggle none the less.





Then it happens! About ten spaces closer to the front than she was able to get, a space is opening up. Yep, the white lights are comin' on....uh oh, they JUST changed to red! We KNOW what that means, OPEN SPOT callin' her name!

Suddenly her head starts spinnin', should she run back and get the minivan? Look how much closer she could be. So much less walking than she has to do know. OMG, what to do???

Then that last little bit of remaining common sense kicks in and she realizes that that would mean having to reload all the kids in the van, haul ass around to the new space and all in hopes that nobody else has grabbed it by that point. So after some major deliberation, she thinks better of just leaving well enough alone and being happy with the spot she has.



Continuing on towards the entrance, almost inside but yet she just can't help herself. She can't resist just taking one more peek at the parking space that almost was. And sure enough, it's still empty!

Thinking to herself how hard she had worked to get her space, how could that one still be open so long? I'd have to think that this is some kinda payback from above. Thank you Karma.



Payback for all the nightmares her and her kind have caused to all of the NormalParkers all over the world. People who are happy just to find a place that they're comfortable with, ANYWHERE in the lot.




I myself much prefer to go in the opposite direction of these CloseParkers. I'm more of an OtherEndOfTheLotParker. Yep, I'm one of those guys you see, parked all the way in the far corner, preferably with a curb on one side, in hopes of avoiding any idiots and door dings.


I don't want to be anywhere near these people that feel they need to squeeze in at all costs. No thank you. Now, I'm NOT one of those guys that parks on the line, taking up two spaces. Oh no, that's just askin' for some jealous fool to come by and key your car, just because it's nicer than his Prius.




Nope, not me. I'm just the kinda guy that's happy to find a drama free parking space with a bit of built in exercise. I don't mind walkin' a bit extra, not at all. In fact, last I heard, exercise is good for you.

So all you CloseParkers out there, go ahead and do all of your stress filled laps, lap after neverending lap. I've got some shopping to do and the longer you're out in the lot, strugglin' for a spot, the less crowded it is for me in the Checkout line.




Have you ever thought about what type of Parker you are? I'd enjoy hearing about where you prefer to park and your reasons for parking there and if you enjoyed this Post, I'd appreciate you sharing it with your friends.

Hey, We Really Need To Talk

Wikipedia defines Communication as; a process whereby information is enclosed in a package and is channeled and imparted by a sender to a receiver via some medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. All forms of communication require a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, however the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication in order for the act of communication to occur.



Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speech, song, and tone of voice, and there are nonverbal means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, through media, i.e., pictures, graphics and sound, and writing.




I guess what they're tryin' to say that no matter what, it takes a minimum of two people, regardless of whether they are present or not, to make the communication work. That sounds simple enough. But that's where you'd be wrong.


I think it's the part where the other person need not be present that messes things up. Back in the ol' days, the person that you were attempting to communicate with pretty much had to be right there next to you in order to hear and to even hope to understand what it was you were trying to say.



Still no guarantees as languages and speech were not perfect sciences at that point. Back then, hand gestures played a huge part in communicating your message to another person. That and a good swift yank of the hair.

As time went on, things got a bit better as more languages evolved and it was generally frowned upon to pull a females hair. That's not to say that fights no longer broke out over something that was mistakenly said but for the most part, Tribes pretty much had a basic language they worked with and it was up to you to learn it. If not, it could definitely cost you dearly.

But again, for the most part, you pretty much had to be within hearing distance of whomever you were trying to communicate with. I'd have to think that if yelling hadn't been invented yet, this just might have been when it first became popular.



Writing has basically been around since the Caveman days, hammering one rock with another rock to create stories of sorts in an effort to communicate but here again, I have to wonder just how much got lost in the translation. Hmmm, is that an elephant or a deer? Perhaps a dog? Maybe a horse?

I think you get my point. Communication still left a lot to be desired. But as alphabets began to flourish, languages became much more polished. That's not to say they were by any means perfected but more often that not, guidelines were set in place allowing a bit more structure and a little less room for self interpretation.



As people began to migrate all over the world, they tended to take their language with them. Which was fine, as long as you just stayed with your own group but once you tried to communicate with another tribe, you were just plain screwed. Major language barrier. Which also meant quite a few arguments ensued.

Finally, at least in the U.S., one single language began to take hold and it was either you learned how to speak, read and write it or you were quickly left behind. Yes, you could get by with just speaking the language alone but if you couldn't read and write, your future was extremely limited.



Luckily the telegraph was invented as that would allow you to communicate with others that were a very large distance away. Same with letters being delivered by the Steam Driven Locomotives and the Pony Express, two other great ways to reach out and touch someone.

We as humans have always had an inherent need, a desire to stay connected and being able to sit down by candlelight, dipping your feather in an ink well, chronicalling all of your thoughts and sending them off to the wide open spaces, knowing there was a pretty good chance that they would actually arrive at there intended destination had to be a huge breakthrough.

But none of these can even come close to the invention of the telephone. Oh no, THAT was the breakthrough of the that Century. For the first time, you were able to communicate with someone in real time, from thousands of miles away. No more wondering if they could hear you or understand you, instant feedback.



Speaking of feedback, it kinda makes you wonder who the first person was to ever get the phone slammed down on him. I say him because I have a feeling that it was a woman hangin' up on a guy because of something he said....or didn't say. I'm just guessin' here....

Fast forward quite a few years and while the phone has gotten smaller and quite a bit more mobile, you'd still have to think it's the preferred form of communication. Besides being there in person, of course.

But thanks(?) to all of the new technology available, we now have various other ways to stay in contact. Whether it be through Email, Text Messaging, Instant Messaging, all of those have opened up so many more avenues for communication in todays modern world. Or have they?



It seems as if instead of opening up all of these new avenues of communication, all they've done is replace actual communication with cybersmoke blowing. While the phone couldn't replace actually being there in person, it was the next best thing.

I say was because it seems to have been replaced by these other means of so called communication. A few clicks here, push another button there and whoooosh, off goes your message. Off to who knows where. Will it reach it's intended target? Well, that's anybodys guess. And worst of all, nobody seems to care whether it does or not.

Emails, in some instances, can be monitored to allow the sender to know if the recipient has actually opened it, read it and responded to it. Not bad for Cyberspace technology.



Texting on the other hand has that let it fly kinda feelin', sending your message off to who knows where and hoping it reaches its intended destination. And if you do eventually get a reply (that makes any sense) then consider yourself lucky.




Instant Messaging has both its good and its bad points. It resembles texting on the Big Screen. If both communicators happen to have Web Cams, then at least they can hope to see a bit of a facial expression here and there. However they also better be equally adept at typing as this isn't a sport for the non nimble fingered or the textually challenged.

Oh no, this can be a super hectic, fast paced nightmare come to life. Similar to a game of tennis between a fresh Rookie and a seasoned Pro, no doubt somebody is gonna get hit in the balls..... ooops, I mean hit WITH a ball.

I don't agree with those that think these cyber replacements can come anywhere close to the communication that can be had from just a simple phone call. Sure, on the phone it can sometimes be difficult to read emotions but as long as you throw in a bit of laughter here 'n there, for the most part you should be ok.



But I don't care what anybody says, there just isn't any substitute for actually being there with the person you're communicating with. Having a face to face, one on one conversation with your sweetheart, having her say "I Love You" in real life, just can't be beat.

So until the day comes that they invent a computer or even a phone for that matter tells me it loves me, all while kissing me on the lips, I'm gonna stick with the ol' fashioned way.



If you can relate to a need for good communication in a relationship of any kind, I'd like to hear about it and if you enjoyed this post, I'd appreciate it if you'd share it with your friends.