Living With a Defective Heart

In the world that is 2018, there is so much meee meee meee whereas it was, once upon a time: kinder, gentler, less selfish.

By those standards, I'm defective.

While still being kind to myself, first, have to replenish the water in my own well to give to those who thirst, I struggle. This defective heart of mine still wishes to give, to remain generous, even empathetic. It's dangerous in this materialistic world of million dollar weddings in which the marriage barely lasts 10 years. This is a world where a 5 year old is GIVEN a $200. phone while the homelessness rate is still a growing problem.

This is a world where people carelessly discard lovers, family, pets with as much care as they toss a disposable razor in the rubbish bin with barely a thought.
This practice is so common, it has a term. Ghosting.

No. I have not "ghosted" anyone, ever.

This is not to say I won't do it in the future, I'm only human. It's quite unlikely, however, with my awareness of the pain it causes.

At the risk of sounding faintly self promoting, my heart is too empathetic, too much of a soft & feeling heart, to do that.

The desire is to be more help than hurt in the world. To leave the world with more acts of kindness than acts of pain-causing selfishness. Every day, accomplishing random acts of kindness is something of an endeavor. 

It IS an accomplishment.

As one who fights against the tide of selfishness it is sometimes difficult. People are very aware. When trying to accomplish a random act of kindness, cameras are everywhere, people with cameras are everywhere!

As much as I despise the over media-fication of so many (as in, people who stay on their phones for 12 hours per day or more) I know it's a fact of life. Fighting it is futile. 
People I know
People unknown
Family
ETC.

All of these have given in to the lure of media addiction.
These people could wean themselves from their addiction if they so wished. Most are lacking the motivation, much less the driving force to wean themselves from turning to their phones to google information 5 or more times per day. It says, "My desire to know stuff is more important than the people I'm supposed to be spending time with, right now."
Many of us stand no chance at all.

Could this be the source which is causing so many souls to interact with their phones instead of discussion with actual humans?
Maybe.
The temptation is so very strong, the pushers of the uber cool cell phones know this. They be skillful varmints.  :(

In this quest to kick against becoming dependent upon a 4" x 3" device, I interact with humans. Other humans, who are less media addicted than the status quo of addicted to media humans.

When other peeps observe this, they make comments such as:

~ Do you know how to use a smart phone?
 ~ Can't you afford an i-phone???
~ Why don't you buy an i-phone?
~ You need an i-phone!

To which I respond ~ No, thank you.

Period. Lacking an exclamation point.

Preferring to remain as an empathetic person, a more human connected human. Basically, more human than media-human.

Can you live, just *ONE DAY* without doing nothing more than simply answering those calls in which you recognize the caller. Can you live in comfort, just one day without looking something up to verify or information search on your phone?

Can you?

If you can, that's an accomplishment.

If not, you might be media, addicted.

I promise you it will be worth it.

If not, I challenge you. 

GO!