October 3, 2010

Lonely Is Okay

Lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.

If you are happy in your head than lonely is okay.
A lot of random content passes through my various online feeds. It is really a miracle I can digest even half of it. Between my RSS feed, Facebook, and Twitter I am constantly keeping my head above water as I swim through the rapids of the Internet. My survival throughout this deluge of information says nothing of the content I produce myself.

It is no surprise that I often ignore blog posts, youtube videos, or news articles, but as every savvy net user knows, certain things keep popping back up. First you see it on Twitter, then a friend posts in Facebook, or someone blogs about it.

The video below one of those things that I ignored several times, until today I finally dedicated the four minutes to watch it. Twice. Please find a quiet place, clear your schedule for the next four minutes, sit back and enjoy a beautiful piece of art. My comments to follow.




The idea that the Internet is a dangerous and unsavory place has been on my mind lately. I wrote about it here, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have also been thinking a lot about alienation, humiliation, and bullying. So it is serendipitous that this video should make it’s way into my life now, because it epitomizes everything that is right about the Internet and as a result human beings. For everyone who claims the Internet is cesspool designed to publicly humiliate us all toward suicide dare them to create something even one tenth as powerful, beautiful and poignant as this.

I am making a vow, right here and now to try and create something as moving as this clip. I urge you to do the same. I will probably watch this video many more times, because it reaffirms what I already know, what I have always known: We are all broken on the inside and the sharing of our pain through art is our only road to true happiness and understanding.

So the next time someone tries to convince you the Internet is leading kids to suicide, show them this clip, watch their jaws drop, and the skin quiver, watch the tiny smiles curl up at their edge of their mouths, and the tears well up. You will see that they have been touched at their core and moved. Remind them the Internet is only what we make of it and dare them to action.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this with me. It made my skin quiver too. And I'm proud of myself for opening it the first time it came into my space right now, even though I have a *@#%load of stuff on my "to do" list today (I mean my "want to do" list today)

    Thanks, Tom

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  2. Thanks for being a regular reader and commenting Tom. I am glad you enjoyed this piece. It really moved me as well.

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