A Reminder

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A track I’ve had on repeat the days leading up to my trip to NYC and still on heavy rotation now that I’m here. Walking around. Doing my thing.

I had been thinking about social, online connectivity all week before I left Berlin. The pros. The cons.

I decided after I landed here in NYC that I’d take a bit of a break from the social networking “usual suspects” of Facebook and Twitter and focus on spending time catching up with the friends here I haven’t seen in awhile and also clear my head. I think that like so many other people, I get lost into thinking that the photos and virtual updates of various friends in my life are a way to really connect or understand what’s going on in their lives no matter how geographically near or far. And vice-versa, that my updates or online habits and quick virtual actions are a way to know what’s really happening with me.

But of course, it is all rarely the case.

Beyond sharing a link or an article, it is sometimes a lazy and numbing way to make assumptions about the awesome and honest happenings of actual life and forget to really connect. Even when we are at home. You know, like IRL. :)

So now I’m gonna take my social networking break a bit further and extend it to every other service and site while I’m here and see how it feels to just think and walk and write and listen and catch up. Maybe this will become a longer-term trend. Easing back a bit in general, who knows. Sounds easy but for someone who is fairly social and loves to share, I bet it will be a challenge, hence this post. :P

Maybe it took the NYC streets and good hip-hop in the ears to remind me how rad is it to just think and be present. I mean, I figured this out a long time ago - I have spent and continue to spend plenty of time alone, just existing and wandering around - but somehow, I so easily forget…and sometimes I also feel judged.

So I leave it with this track. So good! Bob your head and take a walk and look up:

“Brooklyn you crazy. Look how you made me, razor blades in my mouth walk around behaving all demented.

Black hoodies and timberlanded. Always scheming, ‘You see the gleam on that n*ggas pendent?’

Hello Brooklyn, you bad influence look what you had me doing but I ain’t mad at you.

Look at my attitude. It says my life’s too real. Check out my ice grill. Baby I’m cold as ice like I’m from Brownsville.”