When we are grateful, we are full of gratitude. When we say, “Be careful,” we wish for someone to be full of care. When we are mindful, we desire to be full of mind. A mind embedded in skin, a mind in each eye, a mind in every tastebud.
It is near-impossible to be mindful in a world where strangers assess your worth in 140 characters over 3 seconds. Real-time can preclude me-time. Content farms hyper-grow answers and none of those roots go deep.
I watched my son drink water from his glass. I realized the white of his glass was creamier than the white of his shirt. I noticed how his hair stood up in scattered tufts, like a refugee from shojo manga. His eyes shone above the plastic rim, two dark brown moons emerging from behind a white Earth. He glugged and chugged away and, when all the water was gone, handed me his glass, smiled brightly, and said, “Aaah.”
As we hurtle headfirst into the cloud, the internet of things, amazed by our crowdsourced cleverness, we need to remember to be mindful of what matters. Otherwise we could end up merely retweeting others, not having anything of our own to share.
