You Gotta Be Somewhere

The other day I was riding with my Dad to get some lunch when he made a statement that stopped me in the conversation.

I don’t remember exactly what the context of the conversation was, but dad said,

You gotta be somewhere!

Why did it stop me and make me think so much?

Because I think many of us forget it. It seems obvious, huh? You can’t not be somewhere. You are always physically present somewhere. Whether you’re at work, at school, at home, at the mall, at the movies, or anywhere else, you are somewhere right now.

The problem with culture today?

We’re always PHYSICALLY somewhere, but we’re often times MENTALLY elsewhere.

Do you understand what I mean? In fact, one of the issues that causes this problem could be the device you’re reading this on right now. So often we’re physically present, but we’re mentally and socially somewhere else.

Last week, I took my 4 year old to Chuck E Cheese (or Charles E. Cheese as my mother-in-law likes to call it). Our CEC was recently remodeled and do you know what they’ve installed around all of the booths? Charging stations. Now, I get it. Sometimes the kids are playing and you check your phone, but to use it so much you have to have to charge it? You see what I’m getting at?

We’re there, but we’re somewhere else too.

Now, please don’t take this as just a rant about how mobile phones are from the devil and ruining all of us. I’m not on a rant to end cell phone usage, I’m on a mission to mend real conversation and interaction.

So, here’s my point.

Let’s all me more aware. More aware of when we’re ignoring others. More aware of when the Instagram post can wait. More aware of when our kids need our attention and interaction.