These days I notice myself often looking for stories about people who lived in different times than those we're in. Through movies, books, music, poetry, documentaries I get to see and feel into lives from other centuries and they seem to have been lived more deeply and more simply. Feeling into them I sense a thick fog lifting from my soul and I see stories I once lived too, I don't where or how long ago but their essence vibrates within me still.
I see people who loved and looked at each other through their eyes directly into their souls. I see people who knew the value of character, integrity, people who cherished dignity, courage, wisdom, simplicity. I see people writing letters and fighting for their values....I see people tingling with life.
In the times of apps and confort what I miss most is life...spirit, common sense, naturalness, empathy, ease in communication. We're part of a generation which in the presence of confort got uglier and emptier. Theoretically - we have all the necessary conditions to excel...practically - we made our society a harrowing competition of empty words, muscles, money, thigh gaps, expensive clothes, perfect family/career/couple portraits.
In past times there was a certain common sense in the understanding of a human being - it was simply known that you cannot replace a beautiful body with a strong character, that a quick mind does not guarantee a sensible soul, we were not so easily impressed with a single characteristic, we had a wider palette of colors with which to paint the image of a man, we'd see him as a whole.
In any good book a character is described from more than one perspective. We get to know them through their handwriting - its frills, consistency, frailty or strength say something; through their facial features - their fineness, toughness, irregularities, expressions are a window to their character, their nature; they say something about one's abruptness, arrogance, honesty, openness, emotional habits. Even their life's conditions used to say something about one, as humans were seen to be responsible of their own fate and not a perpetual victim of their circumstances.
It's as if we lost the ability to perceive each other in depth, beyond the shallow. And how can we joyfully play in life's theatre when we are blind to the characters and force each other in roles that simply don't fit?
Appearance has become more important than essence...if it seems like...it's enough.
It's as if we cast our souls in mirrors and locked them in thinking we were protecting them, but gravely underestimating the harm emptiness can do.
When we are devoid of spirit we have no compass, no wisdom, no empathy, we become like robots..and if we don't wake up in time and free our souls from the emptiness we've cast them in, we will be replaced by them...and there will be no one left to miss us.