Today I saw what I do not want to become. The person with those lines, you know the ones that make you look like a ventriloquist dummies. The deep downward slant from the corners of the mouth. Formed by the years of tightly clenched jaws. Why do we no longer smile at each other as we pass by in the streets or share an elevator? Why is it when some one does, it catches off guard and we immediately have the thought that they must be crazy or something.

There are always the shared experience laugh: something funny happens and it was witnessed by a group of random strangers, so there is laughter, perhaps a little comment or two and then you move on. Doesn't the day seems a little brighter, even if it is just a moment.

So why do we choose to look stone faced through people, or worse, down right look at them with malice or distrust? Everyone is uncomfortable and we may loose out on a chance to have a great but brief encounter that could enrich us in so many ways.

We all feel the desire to connect. Before all of this technology, people actually had to get together, talk, share stories, funny, sad, frightening. There was a support network that was built.

Phones, allowed for immediate verbal contact, but no need for physical. There is a loss that is suffered here. Learning to read body language, the small gestures that enable us to learn more information about the speaker than words could ever reveal. Being able to touch the person adds alot to a conversation, it may be comforting, flirtatious and genuinely supportive.

Now with the digital age, instant messaging, texting, email, and blogging (oh the irony is delicious to me!), we have removed the sound of the human voice. The nuance, the cadence, vibration and the rhythm. All important in telling us how to perceive the information being given. How many people have had issues with interpretation of an email or message gone wrong.

All of this has all but destroyed language. Constant short forming of words and phrases, lack of sentence structure, and the spelling in general! Even though most of this technology has spell check applications (how unhip of me to use the full word as opposed to sounding hip and cool by using apps). We override it in our haste to get the word out. What word? Why is it so damned important that you can't (or can not, for those of you about to call me on my use of a contacted word, I am not perfect and I know it) take a minute to check your spelling. No one likes to be though of as stupid, but really, if you were judged on how you got the word out- would people be able to surmise that you had more than a first grade education?

I love story telling- not the mundane that gets posted- I mean really why do we need to know what people are doing every minute of the day?

But real 'this happened to me' type stories. The kind that help us to learn, grow, not take some of the trivial stuff so serious and to not take the special stuff for granted. The kind that makes you laugh until your belly aches, the cheeks are wet with tears and the body feels happy exhausted. The kind of stories that make you cry or shake your fist at the sky. No more dummy but a lively person whose expression was always changing so the deep ugly slash lines never have a chance to take. This is the path I choose to take.