I walked through the city the other day on streets I have walked thousands of times. I have never stepped in a pothole or unintentionally bumped into anybody. But, I realized, I had seen so little because I had failed to look up.
Look up.
It’s something that you infrequently do; nobody does.
We all have to look straight ahead. This is a given. Imagine if you did not look straight ahead when you were performing life’s most basic tasks…like driving. TV, something all of us do all the time, would certainly be less enjoyable if we did not look straight ahead-it would be like radio!
Remember the days when radio ruled? You probably do not because you were not alive. Those people who would remember the radio days are not reading this because they are not currently on the Internet…they are listening to the radio.
There is a chance that you would not be reading this either were it not for the radio. That’s right!
Allow me to explain. Twenty, thirty, forty years ago when you may have been born, your parents did not wake up Saturday morning and immediately turn on the TV, which they had to watch. They turned on the radio, which only required them to listen. When all that you have to do is listen, your eyes and mind are free to wonder everywhere. You are not stuck looking straight ahead-and statically-at the television.
With mom and dad moving around in the house, doing things, they innocently brush shoulders. Dad takes a look at Mom (because he is not looking straight ahead at the television) remembering why he fell so in love with her and his non-distracted eyes devour her with love and lust. She returns the glance with a solicitous smile and off to the bedroom they go for a great start to another weekend morning.
You are the result.
So, you see, were it not for the radio, you might not be reading this. Has the family unit not drastically decreased since the onset of the television?
It’s simply too much looking straight-ahead.
People look down a lot too. They don’t just look down on other people-which they do far too much of-but they literally look down. You have to look down.
No, really, you have to look down. What happens if you don’t? You might step in pile of dog sh*t that some dog-walker was too lazy to clean up. And who wants to start the day with sh*t on their shoes? And what if you’re wearing flip flops? Enough said.
Really, looking straight ahead and looking down are always found together, like breasts. You simply cannot have one without the other. When you are going to have dinner, you have to sit down. Your eyes, that were previously looking straight ahead, had to look down in order to sit down. It’s the same in every case. When you are driving, you invariably look down in the midst of looking forward to ensure that there are no impediments in the road.
But nobody ever looks up.
When you are driving, when do you ever look up? You only look up on one occasion…to see if there will be rain. Are our minds so conditioned that in looking up we are only looking for disaster? Then, who wants to look up?
Those who look up know that there is much more than disaster that awaits-there is beauty and perspective.
We are always told to “reach for the stars”. How can you reach for the stars without looking up? You would look plain stupid reaching for the stars and looking down. And speaking of stars, one of the most glorious vistas in life, a clear night filled with stars, can only be seen by looking up!
I bet if people did more of this the population would, once again, increase.
Richard Cummings
Get your copy of his latest book entitled Obvious Conclusions, stories of a Midwestern emigrant influenced and corrupted by many years living in San Francisco and abroad. It just received its first outstanding review "...reminiscent of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs" on Amazon UK.
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Comments 4
I’m curious about why you think the population would increase from this? I agree looking up needs to be more commonplace but I just didn’t follow your logic in that way.
Sonya,
The logic is as follows…People look straight ahead when they watch television, unlike the days of radio when they looked about and only had to listen. Thus, they not only looked up more, they looked everywhere. Since the invention of television, where people just sit there looking straight ahead, the population growth has been stunted because mom and dad sit there like dullards and, instead of gettin’ it on (like they did in the days of radio), they watch TV, looking straight ahead instead of at each other. Thus, there is a significant amount of people alive today that may not have been born if the television were invented earlier.
Is the logic illogical? Well, probably, but we’ll run with it anyway 🙂
Thx for stoppin’ by,
Richard
Ah, yes, I see what you mean. I just reread your article and I actually don’t know how I missed your reasoning before.
My husband and I actually gave away our TV the day we got married. We read that couples without televisions have more sex. So I think your logic is logical 🙂
This is true indeed. I hate it when people look down tho because in most occasions there staring straight into the brand new best buy i-phone not paying the least bit of attention to the sh*t around them