I have forgotten how to assimilate things. We have reached an age where the amount of information and new creations are churned out at a mind-boggling rate whose progression can only be described as geometric . I don’t know where I got it from, but I now have a sixth sense – the sense of urgency. I multi-task everything I do because I have this need to grab everything that I read/hear about. I want to read all the books whose names I only barely managed to catch hold of, I want to listen to all the songs I hear, even the ones I heard as some background music of some movie I watched ( Those are some of the best though, I admit).
Books that offered me my version of meditation and introspection have now become mere items on my to-do list. Music that was my solace once, have receded to the background of my life, literally. It plays there like some inappropriate soundtrack of my life. Inappropriate because I don’t know if the music I’m ‘hearing’ to even relates to my life anymore. That’s how little I pay attention to the lyrics now. I don’t have time, you see, I’m ‘skimming’ a book and wondering what to make for lunch while the song is playing.
In our quest to make our lives better, I think we have forgotten how to live it. I’ve decided to change that while I still can. I will do one thing at a time. I will listen to the music, read a book and I will think about it.
“There is creative reading as well as creative writing.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
idiotropic escape 