Thoughts.....

So I wonder sometimes about this life. I got may hair cut today and I stood in front of the mirror when I got home and stared, for.... a while. The thought that came to me while doing this was, "Is this me?" I genuinely questioned the style of my hair to my identity. Is this hair cut in a response to who I am or a step towards who I want to be?

One of my friends the other day (who happens to be a guy) told me that I didn't have style until I started hanging out with him and his friends, who are now my friends. Did I really not have style or did I not have their style?

Finally, last week my parents found out about my nose piercing..... lets just say that they flipped. I did not get the piercing out of rebellion, or demise, I got it because I wanted it, had the money, and didn't think of it as a big deal. Well to my parents it was quite a BIG deal. In order to show them that it wasn't a big deal I immediately took it out, I figure if I were to put up a fight it made it a big deal. I did what they wanted not because they wanted me to but because I wanted to prove my point. I'm not sure if they understand that but that was my intent. And from all of this hullabaloo and rubbish I come to ask, do I even get to make any decisions in my own life? And if so, When?

Fractured?

I have recently been thinking of the world in which we live in. A world in that in the past ten years more emphasis has been made on “going green” and social media than on a whole lot else. I will admit that I am not the most technologically gifted person, when it comes to computers or gadgets I either break them or they break on me. But, I do want to look and maybe question the way some of these technologies have impacted our culture and society.

During a car ride home I listened to a podcast that brought up an idea that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. It is the idea of being a part of a fractured culture. In a world that is obsessed with letting everyone know what they are doing at every moment it’s hard to think that we are really just fragmented pieces desiring connection. Social networking sites have done a great job at doing both of these things- connecting us and fragmenting us. We create this profile based of some perception of ourselves with a little truth and a little lie. Sites like Facebook allow us to have easy connection with people that we would otherwise not while adding people that we maybe have met once. On top of our desire to connect with people, when we are on Facebook it’s usually an act done in solitude. We are completely fragmented. The goal of social networking fails us in some way.

The podcast that I was listening to also related the idea of fragmentation to music. In the local Birmingham music scene there are several different styles of music and preferred venues to catch these at. In one week you can see popular indie bands like Local Natives at Workplay, small folk locals at Moonlight café, or electronic pop indie stars Casio Kids at Bottle tree. We all have our preferences and thanks to YouTube, Last.FM, Jukesy, and Pandora we are able to have complete access to the specific style of music we most enjoy. Sites like Jukesy take songs that trend from YouTube and Last.FM and place them in genres. From their listings you get random playlists in which you are able to save and replay. This music revolves around your personal choice and likes. So what exactly does this mean? Well, it means those artists who are relatively unknown now become known, but only on a small scale. So we have these small groups of semi popular artists unlike ten years ago when pop charts were claimed by three or four major players. Yes, today’s charts are claimed by Lady GaGa and Ke$ha, but then there is Adele, Mumford and Sons, and Florence & the Machines who have found their way up the charts well after their first album release. Before these climbs up the charts these artist were loved by small groups of music lovers and coffee houses and sound stages around the U.S. We have created fragmentations.

I am not saying that this fragmentation is a bad thing. What I am saying is that with the social network up rise we are striving to be connected while doing a pretty good job of separating ourselves from others.

This is my Spirit

There is a picture that I see,
When calling out to thee,
Its me.

With white flowers dancing,
My hearts daring and chancing,
Running free your face painted so vividly,

You cover me with your glory,
Embracing me just holding,

We talk all day long,
Maybe even singing some songs,

You whisper in my ear,
Darling I am always here to hear,

You help me down from your lap,
Sending me off in hopes one day I will come back,

I softly walk away,
With expectations to return one day,

My job today is the same,
Since the coming of His name,

Love is the task,
Not covered with fancy masks,

I will show all the nations,
Great love through His creations,

And one day when I'm old and gray,
On my knees I will bow and pray,

I will then be reminded,
Of the flowers and not be blinded,

Returning home like I once said,
To a shoulder where I can rest my head,

It will be the same picture that I will see,
When my Father calls out for me.

-Sarah Cole