Do We All Live in a Yellow Submarine?

Well, here's an interesting topic. When you find out you missed a call from someone but they didn't leave a voicemail, what is that saying? I'm not real crazy about people calling and not leaving a voicemail in the first place. Obviously, there are all sorts of reasons why this might happen, but I have decided not to call the person back. About a third of the time or more when I do that, they didn't even call me in the first place. It was one of those accidents that occur with smartphones. That's why they call them smartphones. They're so smart. I have a very dear friend who never leaves a voicemail when she calls. I just call her back. It's usually because she got a free moment to call me, and if I don't call her back, I won't probably get another chance to talk to her for a long time. That's just one example, but if someone I haven't heard from for a coon's age suddenly appears to have called me, I'm going to assume it was a mistake. Calling someone just to find out they didn't really call you is not the most gratifying of experiences. I did text the person and got another message that the message didn't send, so that's something else that smartphones do. They create mystery and drama in a world that doesn't really need any more mystery and drama. I'm reminded of the Beatles song that says, "We all live in a yellow submarine." Not sure why, I don't know all the lyrics. I just know that is what occurred to me while thinking about the topic of communication these days. The Internet has done a lot of things that are good, in terms of business communication, perhaps, but I think in terms of personal relationships, it has hurt more than it's helped. Instead of bringing people together, I think it has really, instead, pulled them more apart, so that we can really say, "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine." I don't know the rest of the words, and I'm not going to look them up right now, I just think it's a perfect metaphor for the way we live nowadays. I think it was great that the telephone was invented, but I don't think smartphones have really helped matters that much. They have given us computers at our fingertips, and that's all lovely and good, but I think they have furthered the distance between people. I'm going to clarify for some who might not get what I'm saying about a yellow submarine. Yellow has always been a color associated with cowardice and fear, correct? And maybe that's what many of us have become as we have traversed this life and hit some rocky roads along the way. It's odd because it says "a yellow submarine," not "yellow submarines." No, we live in the same general space with many other people, and yet we know so many only on the surface. Yellow and underwater. Crazy metaphor. I love it. Today was the first day back to school for the kids. We grownups have had a couple of days to prepare. This afternoon, I helped a little second grader fill out her information sheet. The question was, "What do you most want to learn?" I am not sure the wording is correct, but that's the general idea. You know what this adorable child said? She said, "To get to know some other kids." I have never heard this from a child so young, or any child, really. I was so touched by that. The thing is the child could not spell or write letters well at all, so I am predicting that I might be working with her, but I have had such a powerful introduction to the school year today. There are so many children out there, and so many grownups, who want to get to know other people, but so often don't really figure out how to do that. I hope that as a support worker in public education that I can make a difference with children, and help them to make a difference in this world when I'm gone. So, with that, I must close, with love, Carolyn (It's my especially early writing night tonight.)