Cell phones aren’t the only way to communicate!
Well, today I read in the NYT (and I use initials only because everyone else does because, frankly, neither mama nor I understand half the things people talk about when they speak in initials—for example, “Did you hear that the SPCA is adding FYI some new DFIs so that the RNB will have more TLC than before?). Mama’s eyes are crossing…
So, FYI, it’s an article in The New York Times entitled Stop Googling: Let’s Talk, and since this is right down mama’s alley (or up it—which is it?), she pointed out to me that she and I lie down together and talk often and she tells me what a good kitty I am and how nice my fur feels and how pretty my eyes are when they send kitty kisses to her and we communicate. I leave my cell behind…
And I like that.
Plus I have noticed that mama and papa talk a lot all day long to one another about all sorts of things, sometimes to the point that they get up from our breakfast table and say, Where did the time go; we only have two hours until lunch! How are we going to get anything DONE?
Things like that, but they are NOT giving up conversation, no way, Jose.
But if you have the time to peruse this article, it’s worth it, especially if you have teen-agers or members of the family who cannot go to a restaurant or anywhere, really, without pulling out a cell phone and consulting it for heaven knows what or tweeting or twittering someone right in the middle of a conversation with someone else (!) or simply feel that the cell phone has to be lying near them at all times or that life as they know it is over.
So is everyone a doctor around here? An emergency vehicle? A fireman or policeman?
Evidently we are losing our skills at conversation, and along with that, perhaps our skills at thinking about what we are saying or might say and how we would say a specific thing to a specific person, such as—ourselves. At one point, the author talks about having kids sit in a chair for 15 minutes, no talking, no phone, no anything, just experiencing one’s brain, one’s being, as it were, in the process of…well, being.
The results are fascinating.
As for me, I am the world’s best introspector (new word). Most of the day I reflect on the state of the world, the universe, and even what might have been happening before the Big Bang, and I speak when it is relevant. But when I speak, it is deep, believe me, and profound, and conversation is one of my favorite pastimes. That and sleep yoga.
Here I am, talking to my nip doggy, but he has, frankly, bored me to tears so I’m nodding off…it’s more fun talking to anthros.
As for attention span, have you ever watched a kitty watch its prey? If not, just buy a bird feeder.
Art by mama
Your nip doggy looks well loved, Loulou. And we love your mama’s art! We watch the birdies all the time.
Thank you. Mama is drawing me more often now. Maybe she’ll let me borrow some portraits of yours truly for my blog.
It is annoying (to say the least) to be around people who spend most of their time in your presence talking on their cell phone!
Especially when they are talking to YOU, too.