June, 2015 – Special Guest Editorial
By Jon Frangipane
EYELESS IN AMERICA
How many of us have really taken time to honestly examine our own true feelings regarding our family, friends, environment, politics, government, education, race and a myriad of other important life matters?
Because the speed at which life speeds along now has increased to such a horrific pace, too many people have become lost in a cataclysmic torrent of meaningless minutiae.
What has become more important to those too many people are cell phones whose screen and its inner workings have become more familiar than the faces of their very own families and friends.
And then, to see a family of four sitting in a restaurant with two children intently looking down at their prized cell phone, tablet or some other god-forsaken latest gadget on the market, you certainly wouldn’t be surprised at all to see one or two of the parents doing the same.
This behavior is only the tip of the iceberg. Texting for many of us has taken the place of phone calls (not to mention the wonderful art of letter writing, as well), and in many instances, it’s allowing our thumbs more exercise than our bodies. The absolute absence of hearing a human voice deliver a message, or looking at a human face, is destroying the most necessary art of communication with one another.
How could we all be so oblivious to the obvious? How could all of us possibly be sucked in so helplessly by continuing to buy the next, latest digital marvel?! Why? Because most of us have become eyeless! Unknowingly, for some incomprehensible reason, we seem to be allocating our precious time to the things in life that will hurt us the most!
Get off this speeding train to disaster! Stop answering the constant, taunting cry from marketers selling life-destroying gadgets with so little regard for the human conditions of companionship, love and understanding!
Copyright © 2015 Jon Frangipane
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Jon Frangipane is a pianist and an ASCAP published composer. He is the former owner/publisher of Lighthouse Point Magazine. He is co-facilitator of the Fort Lauderdale Writers’ Group, along with Wendell Abern. He dabbles in playwriting and tennis.