Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Signs of the Times

The other day I drove past an automated sign dancer! 

It was a female mannequin with a blonde wig wearing a red sheath and waving a sign encouraging patronage in a barbershop. 

What next? 

Sign dancers – the real ones – astound me. Whenever I see one moving in perpetual gyrations I wish them generous paychecks. If I had to do that – well, I couldn’t. 

At times it seems that there is nowhere you can go in this country without someone trying to sell you something. Nothing is free of commercials and nothing is free. 

Advertisements appear on the computer screen next to my email. And in my mailbox and in my newspaper and on my television and radio and on my telephone. 

And the frenzy accelerates as the no-longer-holy holiday season advances. 

 Too much. 

How do we decelerate all this? How do we reconnect with the real: friends and sunsets and babies and cats? Good food and brisk walks and genuine laughter? The beauty of the ordinary – the mostly free of charge – must somehow be appreciated again. And valued – even more than our microwaves … or barbershops.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Mim, So true. I've seen the sign dances too along Eisenhower and 287. Something in me would like to do that, but only for a few minutes. We are such a material civilization, surrounded by advertising for things and all the paraphernalia that includes: credit cards, bills, storing things, etc. I agree, let's get back to friends, nature, conversation, and nature. Pat

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  2. Hi Mim! I didn't know you had a blog over here or I would have visited sooner. I'm also on a mission to reconnect with the real and it's feeling pretty good. Have a wonderful (and real) Thanksgiving.

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  3. Yes, we are in an age when we really need to edit what we pay attention too--and that's much harder than it looks!

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