Scott Feschuk recently wrote this in an edition of Macleans: "I am saddened to announce that my New Year's resolutions, which imbued me with a sense of optimism and gave me hope that I could become a better human being, have died. They were less than a month old. They passed away quietly after a brief struggle with reality".
I loved that. It's the reason why I do not make New Year's resolutions. But I do believe in change.
We visited South Africa in December/January and it was a trip filled with great moments and not-so-great moments. Highlights included Christmas/Birthday Celebration with the family, the Game Reserve, great South African food, and seeing the country of my birth through the eyes of Canadian friends. The low-lights aren't worth mentioning however an interesting experience was noticing how, after almost 5 years, friendships have changed. People I expected to smother me with attention didn't, and people who I didn't expect to see at all, smothered me. It was not a low-light, it was a realization and that's OK. I returned home, to a place I love, filled with friends and experiences I would never have had, had we not taken the giant leap. I'm a lucky guy.
This year I will be 40 and I am excited to enter that decade of my life though I often struggle just with the concept that I have reached this age, be it middle, just approaching, or past - it's older than I often feel. When I woke up on my 39th birthday I said to Keith "I wish I was 40", he said "me too".
A friend and I have set ourselves a personal 60 day challenge. This is my New Year's resolution and we have set ourselves some goals that we will motivate each other to meet. This morning I decided that one of those is to remove myself from Facebook for that period. I tried a few months ago to get away from technology and speak more to people rather than communicate only through text or online but it didn't work and I quickly understood that this is the way of the world. Heaven forbid I become someone who speaks about how things were in my day...
Having said that, I log on to Facebook too often, and spend a ridiculous amount of wasted time seeing who checked in where (some of my friends insist on checking in to every place they pass on a daily basis), reading shared pictures, statements and bright-light ideas, learning about everyone's opinion (and I often wonder why you have to put that as a status - how about actually telling the person about whom you are opining directly) and my personal pet peeve; being subjected to someone's cause (I respect that you have something you now believe in but please stop shoving it down my throat). I've removed the app from my phone, along with many others so that I am no longer someone who constantly checks the (I love my) iPhone at a dinner party, coffee or gathering in the hopes that my phone is not broken and has received that exceptionally urgent message, status update or email.
I would love to catch up with someone and actually hear some news that I didn't already know from Facebook. And I think I need to read more magazines. And maybe blog more. So I downloaded a copy of my Facebook data, transfer my birthdays to my iCal (because I still want to wish you a Happy Birthday) and will decide if I want to suspend my account or just remain silent (because no doubt I will be back and I may need to log in and check something!). In doing my "how do I" research I learnt that if one has ever "logged in using Facebook", that if one uses that application, it will automatically re-activate a suspended account and then your friends think you couldn't go the distance and stay away. Facebook is not that easy to get rid of!
So I'm almost there. But then to my horror, I realized a fate worse than forgetting someone's birthday. I won't be able to check in to the Fran Lebowitz show next week, nobody will be able to comment on my beautifully worded memory status on the 4th anniversary of my sister's passing, and I won't be able to like your comment or comment on your comment. In essence, I won't be getting any attention and neither will you. Wonder how that's gonna work out for us?
If you are reading this, then I pray it's not on Facebook because that means that Networked Blogs has re-activated my previously (very recently.....or maybe not yet enforced) inactive Facebook account. If you are reading this I pray it's on Twitter (because I can't remove myself from every social networking site available to man), or because you are one of my precious 12 email subscribers.
Everyone else on my Facebook friend's list will be none the wiser, may not notice, and will comment on my return, when I return that I've been quiet.
As they say about the uninterrupted vinyl record; "catch you on the flip side"
