Deep Thoughts, Light Words.
The son and mother have both been stressed lately, each with our own challenges. In this fickle world, "creative" is a cliched word, much tossed around and rarely understood in all its rich and diverse possibility. And we are both struggling to sustain wholeness by stretching the boundaries of our creativity, often turning the unexpected into our resources.
We have long chats with each other at times and share dreams and aspirations and run our works-in-gestation by each other. And these chats happen unexpectedly, often after a long silence when our individual moments of stress-release synchronize.
There was one such at dawn today. I decided to share it here without the son's permission because it's too insightful not to share. So here goes.
Son: Yes I took a brief break from social media... So much noise there, a cluster of opinions and shallow humour and memes... I got a bit tired... I kept watching interviews and I downloaded a word puzzle game... Discovering new words and phrases... Hehe...
Me: Don't take a break from my wall LOL. You won't find anything shallow there - only comfort and joy. I dislike those memes and the stupid squabbles. Even the best of our people do that and then complain that there's no real conversation on social media
Son: That's something (referring to my wall) I can surely rely on... For example I binged the entire conversation that you had in your last chat show... It felt like both of you were, in fact, talking to me and teaching me things... I felt embraced... (referring to this show)
Me: (continuing ...) I always tell those people - don't make public posts (except to publicize your work), don't take the bait to comment on someone's post especially the shallow ones, keep your opinion to yourself except in a worthwhile setting. Have a custom list and hold good conversations with those chosen ones.
And wow, you got through the 90 minutes? Closer to 120 mins I think!
Son: I don't know how many minutes it was .. the more I watched, the more I wanted to watch...
Me: That chat was meant to illustrate how a workshop will turn out. More than one person has often pointed out to me the length of my posts and talks versus the short attention span of youth. But any young person who watches this is watching the whole thing I notice, and not having any attention span issues. At least so far. I love how older people stereotype youth and I love how youth make asses of themselves on SM and elsewhere to give older people that impression. Not that older people are any better - they behave like 3 year old kids, sneaking, washing dirty linen, sharing screen shots, reveling in shaming someone, gathering a gang of bullies.
And so chatting, one fell asleep after working a night shift online, and the other started to scurry around chasing household chores. And yes, they were texting as the "LOL" and "hehe" will tell you, living as they do in different physical locations.
This conversation will continue seamlessly though. The very next time we find ourselves synchronizing. And I will share the details once more on this space.
Meanwhile the eternal trickster called the imagination plays gently. I rewind a few decades to those timeless early mornings at the family dining table where I was the child of my parents excited to recount last night's dream over coffee.
I reframe my conversation with my son in this setting. I slip away effortlessly to the dining table of my youth. An orange sun rising, my family (now me and the son) seated there for coffee.
Son just having commuted home from a night shift (with a newspaper maybe?) because there was no logging off, no remote working in that era. Flinging himself and his bag and baggage wearily down. Me rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I let him in. Me stopping my chore to talk to him before he runs off to bed, after grabbing a snack in passing. And him sitting down to talk because he is in a mood to unload the night's adventures. Both of us sharing a beverage - strong coffee for me, some warm milk with haldi (turmeric) for him to calm him down and help him sleep as the world is rising ...
That is an era with no social media as we understand it now. But there has always been social life, be it the elite clubs or the local adda. Often very shallow, occasionally pretty deep with meaningful connections being made. I am able to rearrange all these pieces in that setting - the shallow talk, the gossip and snarking and sneaking. Except that in that era, they didn't all move at the speed of light!
Now everything else fades away. Only the aroma of coffee lingers, laced with a touch of turmeric. Both timeless. We both fall asleep with our heads on the table as the winter sunlight streams in softly.
See the full chat show with Sridevi Datta here
