Empathetic or Annoying
Looking out the window at the snow falling wondering if Bob Dylan likes chocolate? Probably my brain asserts, who doesn’t? Dylan’s return a la Timothée Chalamet in the biopic No Direction Home, has a very many of us thanking our lucky stars for a distraction that has a recognizable depth of spirit that is uplifting, joyful and pure.
Pure, a rare word to come across in these times and yet this film of reminders is a refresher course of a purity that makes Dylan’s resurgence all the more compelling. His timeless identifiable truths have inspired humanity for decades. Identifiable, that is if one happens to have the capacity to feel, and like Dylan, embraces these feelings. He turns them into poignant lyrics, allowing them to sink deep down inside our souls. In days gone by these feelings would be rewarded, sustained and coined compassionate, not annoying and certainly not demonized. There is a reason for the adage rings true, and the reason is simply because there is a pay-attention- to -me ringing of feeling if they are not suppressed, that sets off like an alarm throughout one’s entire body.
Yet in the now hijacked America feelings are being overridden and dare I say replaced by leaders, tech bros/ femmes who exemplify narcissism, along with sociopathic tendencies. Many or most live in emotional numbness, viewing feelings as weak, an unwarranted waste of time, calling them annoying and giving the expression of them an irritating eye roll. Even worse of maybe not, it’s all so ugly, that the tech bros continue to suck out our humanity by attempting to (with their tech tools) to promote self -doubt in those of us who stay true; trust our gut, our intuition, our feelings.
Trust is another sizeable word that has been cast aside like cruel budget cuts for hungry foster kids, women’s health care and the many other vulgar affronts we are suffering in the wake of misogyny, shameless misinformation, tweets and all out fervent lies.
It’s apparent that the tech leaders did not get the memo, nor do they care that the way humans heal are through feelings. So here we are, and the question remains if one cannot feel how can there be more empathy and less annoyance?
Perhaps Mr. Dylan could tweet out the question to Mr. Musk and ask him, “How does it feel?”
Stay True,
MGH