you're right, mom. its kind of sick.

thats what my little brother said to my mother-he wanted to get one of those handheld thingamagigs with buttons and jumping dinosaurs and stars, and my mother said to him,
"look at that boy over there. does he even know that it's a nice day? does he even know that he's in the playground?"
"you're right, mom." he said. "its kind of sick."

i have figured out the thing that keeps people staring transfixed, looking at screens for hours on end (rather like you and i are doing right now.) we have made this marvelous invention-The Moving Thing. you see, if something before our eyes moves, and our eyes follow it, we don't have to go anywhere to feel as though we're doing something. the first example of a Moving Thing is a book. we can sit looking at a book and not moving for hours, because things are happening inside our heads. it is like dreaming. Moving Things are a sure sign of a Civilized Society (not an expression i use negatively or positively; only a state of being.), but they can look scary to someone not involved. if we, not seeing the screen or the page or hearing the music, see a person with their eyes open doing nothing, we are frightened. if seems like they are blank, dead. they are not. they are doing more than we are, with their minds. in creepy sci fi books and movies, the society is always converted entirely to Mind Motion-that is, doing things inside your head rather than outside. this frightens the reader/viewer because it feels like the society is full of dead, motionless people. on a certain level, this is true. The Moving Thing is a concept which had the potential to do great harm, but also the potential to do great good. we must find the balance between intellectual movement, physical movement, and emotional movement. only then, will we be truly alive.