Friday, November 18, 2005

I never watch Oprah. Maybe a little bit after school, when I was still in high school. However, there was a small hiccup in my television habits during a stint of unemployment lasy year. So, Oprah was interviewing a young, Kuwaiti woman. She was beautiful and clearly wealthy. She described the wealth enjoyed by the citizens of her country- and it sounded like a dream, really. Free healthcare, free education, strong family ties... even democracy. But, her response to Oprah's question, "What advice would you give to your American girlfriends?" has continued to haunt me. She said that she wished that we (Americans) could become more conscious, more aware of every moment. She commented that Americans are so stressed out and distraught, so many seem distracted by other obligations and deadlines, that there is no time to pay attention to the immediate. There seems to be a mental\emotional absence in the course of our daily routine.
The statement resonated. So often I feel disengaged from my own body and life. The older I get the more easily I can unhook my mind and keep my body moving with the momentum of sheer survival.
I know that I can only speak for myself, but I suspect that others might agree that it is not so easy to keep the soul and the senses intact, to keep aware of the nuances of reality when we feel so bogged down and increasingly off balance.

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