Stop it and Get a Life

Stop it. Please.

PLEASE.

You know who you are — the people posting announcements from Facebook applications with titles like:

• “Which fairy are you?”
• “Which day of the week are you?”
• “Which beer are you?”

For a moment, step away from the keyboard. Walk into the bathroom wherever you are, and look into the mirror, deep into your own eyes. Notice their shape, their color, the beautiful details in the iris.

Imagine looking back across time — into the eyes of an ancient ancestor.

If your eyes are blue, then you share a common ancestor to ALL other blue-eyed persons, scientists say. And, within the past 6 to 10 thousand years or so. And, that person probably lived in Northern Europe.

Contemplate who they were — and how you’re connected to them — and to every other blue-eyed person on this planet.

Then, regardless of your eye color, begin to imagine that who you are as the successful progeny of thousands of generations of human beings that walked this planet for thousands of years.

Imagine that you notice yourself carrying the genetics of the surviving members of your ancestors’ families — through wars, treachery, plagues, fire, droughts, floods, earthquakes, cyclones, ice ages, pestilence, famine — and every other natural and man-made disaster and challenge, recorded or forgotten.

The blood of the survivors and the successful — and the just plain lucky — runs in your veins. When you look into your own eyes, you look deep into that legacy.

If that legacy were to look back — the warriors, and captains, and sailors, and fishermen, and farmers, and miners, and travelers, and mothers, and hunter-gatherers, all.

They may collectively say to you:

“Stop it, please”. Stop seeking an identity in a meaningless “application” on Facebook.

Perhaps they’d offer something like:

“HERE’S YOUR IDENTITY. Right HERE. Look long. Look hard. Look often. “Imagine it” they could say “YOU — the product of thousands of generations of SUCCESS — just by being alive — JUST by drawing your breath this moment — YOU ARE US. We thrill to know that you are here. And, we want you to experience a REAL identity, rooted in your character and grown through your actions.”

“Live a life worthy of that history — and while you remember this undeniable connection every remaining day of your life — before you join us all in the dusts of time…”

I wonder how people would feel about their “identity” if they did this once in a while — or maybe even just ONCE…

I wonder if people would notice that those who thought them interesting enough to “friend” them in the first place were imagining they’d post something that’s actually about them — and not some idiotic “applications” random stamp about them.

And, I genuinely wonder how interesting their real posting — one that’s actually about them will be …