my grandparents live in a mini-city/town in India, they live real simple and crude. the phone bill must be worth $4. Everyone is personal. That place makes me feel like they should have stopped in time forever and lived that way forever. I get the feeling I cannot do anything for them with money. They live in a certain sanctity.
This is why I prefer it there.

people dont have global perspective in the united states. hardly any of us know what life is like in underdeveloped countries. Sure, we’ve all seen the pictures of the malnourished African tribal kids or pictures of an indian street but we dont have tv reality on life in bhutan do we?

In the early 90s, I saw a film called “Denise Calls Up” at the Seattle Film Festival. It was before its time in an, I believe, unintended Nostradamean way. A circle of best friends speak many times daily via phone yet never meet up & hadn’t for years. Many of them also work from home via computer to further complete their world of no human contact ever. If that Mommie Dearest film with Faye Dunaway were made today, she’d scream that rather than protest clothes hangers. The best friends make lunch plans/dates but no one ever shows, hold birthday parties which no one ever attends & even are no-shows for funerals of their best friends… of course, the obligatory I’m sorry phone calls are prompt & curteous.

The last scenes are of a man & woman (both best friends of the group of best friends) who are supposed to meet as blind dates at a holiday party. Of course, they’ve spoken via phone many times. They cross paths in the street just outside the building, kind of sort of spot the desperate face of the other stressed out human passing by as the life form they’re supposed to meet, suddenly realize the evening would require the interaction they spend their lives avoiding & continue walking in opposite directions… never attending the party, never meeting each other or anyone, ever.

We are living that now. Twitter is only a continuation of no human contact ever & I’m sure written sideways is Aramaic for the Anti-Christ. Singles used to go to coffee shops in the hopes of a chance to speak to other singles, bringing along a paperback as pulp courage to hide one’s glance so one didn’t look lonely, available & single. I can’t even see faces anymore… everyone in line at Starbucks or on the bus/train has head tilted forward while thumbs move frantically over keyboards, talking to best friends like Denise through a Blackberry, Iphone, Netbook or any ordinary cellphone. We have to speak to people through devices now. Those are the new rules. I believe it’s posted in Starbucks that we may only speak to the human at the next table if WiFi is on, infared ports have connected & parties are utilizing IM. I’m pretty sure the kids are calling that cybersex. I don’t want cybersex. I’d like to have a boyfriend. I just have no bloody idea whom to email/text/Tweet.

I’m glad I could come here to share my thoughts with my circle of best friends. Call me!!!

I assume we’re talking about the fat Japanese cat. We are, right? I love that cat.