It’s sad… very very sad. We live in the most interconnected world that has ever existed, yet connection is the one thing we crave and lack the most. We forgot what it means to look up and smile to strangers, to befriend those we see day after day around us, to say hi to our neighbors. We discarded the beauty of the uncertainty of a possible random encounter in exchange for a false sense of security achieved by pretending to look down at a screen.

We go through the motions of life putting a filter to everything we experience: Let me take a picture of this, let me take a video of that.. let me post about it.. and that’s fine! we want to hold those memories tight and have something to look at when we’re old, but in the process we’re missing that which we’re craving to capture. We’re missing the present moment… and once it’s gone, IT’S FOREVER GONE!

When (if ever) we look back at all those pictures we took and worthless messages we sent we’ll think “I wish I had allowed myself to surrender to the beauty of that moment, to let myself go and get lost in the depths of those experiences!” If only we had done so.. our souls would have been stung by the sharpness of our senses: the smells, the sounds, the images and feelings of that warm orange sunset at the beach, of that mix of sweat and perfume from our lover waking up beside us, of those blurry ecstatic nights dancing with our friends. We would have lived at peace knowing we did it to the fullest, great and banal moments, we enjoyed them all.. we were there to witness them all.

But we didn’t, we were not there, we were recording the memories of a life we didn’t truly live.. it was already too late… And we all know there’s nothing worse than too late. As Hans Comyn said once “Life is not about collecting toys. Life is about the people you meet and the memories you make. Life is about the beauty you have seen.”

Image if we printed out all the conversations we have over text messages and compared them to the love letters that our grandparents and great grandparents used to send to each other, how much romance, passion and desire do you think each would reflect? Is this how we want our love lives to be remembered? Are these the memories and the life we’re committed to creating?

When we’re together with someone we’re giving that person our only two limited resources in life: Time & presence. And so are they. We’re literally giving each other a fragment of our life, a portion of it that will NEVER EVER come back no matter what. So let’s acknowledge that, let’s leave our phones aside and receive with love and grace that gift which our lover, friend, or even stranger is offering us. Let’s truly and fully be there for each other!

Unless you believe that the text message you have to send is more important than a fragment of another person’s life…

So put it down and look up!

-Nicolas Canon

PS: If your partner, friends, kids or people you know suffer from addiction to their phones please SHARE this! Together we can make a difference 🙂
PPS: Buy some cool art prints HERE! 😀

(Art by Banksy)