Me and You and Everyone We Know
A strange feeling of disconnect
From me and you and everyone
The blinking cursor
Waiting for words
To fill up the empty whiteness
Fingers curved with expectancy
Eyes straining to take a different look
At feelings unfamiliar
And thoughts unknown
The above middling lines are the result of watching a quirky and low key film, ‘Me and You and Everyone We Know’, a film about intimacy and disconnect in the digital age. Other than the fact that I’m smitten by the director and lead actress of the film, Miranda July (such beautiful eyes she has), the film has left behind strange feelings in my heart. I don’t know if you will understand but I feel like hugging someone I love and feel the warmth flowing between our two hearts. It is as if there is something unsaid in me that needs to be said. The lines at the beginning succeed only a little in encapsulating that feeling. Is it because the film has affected me on more levels than I know? Is it because parts of it reflect my views about intimacy? Or is it solely because Miranda July reminds me so much of a special person from my past?
In this age of virtual bonding and fleeting love I wonder how far apart we are moving from each other. Humans are social animals, we need to touch, feel, hug and kiss to stay connected with our feelings. Otherwise we start to fold into ourselves like touch-me-nots. They say technology connects but I wonder…I think it connects but only with increasing superficiality. The telephone was the first step in that separation…now we do not even have time to call…the warmth of the human voice has been replaced by the utter (un)feeling of chatting.
Where are the conversations we used to have in the moonlight, waiting for dawn? Where are the feelings that fell like dew between two human beings? Where are the unspoken words that took birth as we watched the gentle glow of dawn, holding hands after staying awake the whole night, talking about you and me and everything? Where are the sleepy smiles of midnight?
March 8th, 2006 | Quote
Ô¿Ô: Ah, I hope you enjoy the film…I think you will.
Lorena: Oh…thats great! Intimacy is so hard to find these days right? That is indeed a pity as I’m looking for it too. Thank you Lorena for leaving behind such lovely words.
Aran: No, not at all, no need to be embrassed or feel sorry about being honest. Actually, someone else said the same thing recently. I guess my efforts to write decent verse end up being middling at best these days!
Btw how was your trip? Hope you had a blast!
March 6th, 2006 | Quote
I liked this. I think I’ve started loving your prose more than your poetry. That probably is not a very correct thing to say. *blush*
February 26th, 2006 | Quote
I love this film. It is one of my favorites in the past year. I love the thoughts you put here. I think the reason why I love the film so much is because it reflects a void in my life. It is something that I desperately seek and can’t seem to find, intimacy.
anil, you have a way with words.
February 17th, 2006 | Quote
Our virtual connections open so many doors, but also makes us lazy - not realizing the eyelashes and blushes we’re missing.
I meant to see this, but forgot. As soon as I read your post, I ordered it (online, of course). Thank you!
February 16th, 2006 | Quote
Fingers: *smiles* thank you!
Zofo: You are so right about the fleck of grey…I didnt realize that.
Geets: Dont even get me started on SMS. Of course it might be bcos I’m SMS challenged…it takes me 30 mins to type a decent message but the whole SMSese lingo makes me think our brains are evolving backwards…
Divakar: I wish it was as simple as that…
Mermaid: Ah you too! If I was not this lazy I’d be writing letters all the time…that is one thing which email has more or less destroyed…the joy of finding a long handwritten letter from someone you like waiting in your letterbox and then curling up on a sofa and reading the thoughts of that person…it is some much more personal, intimate and immediate…
Do see the film…I think you will like it.
yvaine: *smiles* I’m glad you agree…I wanted it to be more of a proper film review but it ended up as this.
February 16th, 2006 | Quote
i found myself nodding throughout your entry. true, true and true. and i’ll take this as a movie review too!
February 15th, 2006 | Quote
I will ahve to say that while I was stuck indoors during the first few weeks after delivery, blogging saved me from creative death and baby suffocation.
I know what you mean, though. I miss letters, especially reading the quircky script of people over email text.
I’ll have to get out to see that movie, or put it on my rental list. Lorena also mentioned it to me.
February 13th, 2006 | Quote
Then what are you waiting for dude, call up sometime!!
February 12th, 2006 | Quote
That is so true, what you’ve said about the change in relationships vis-a-vis the change in our modes of communication. Chatting and emails are actually still bearable, but when communication is reduced to SMS it really sucks…when someone you love can’t spare more than the 2 mis it takes to type one text message..and when your life all but hangs on the beep of your cellphone…makes me want to turn back the clock.
Yet hope is not all lost, for we are not alone in what we feel…atleast that’s what I’d like to believe…and my eyes stray to that cellphone again :-(
February 10th, 2006 | Quote
Just like video killed the radio star… the internet these days substitutes for our bonding at quite a few levels… I think that fleck of grey in her eyes is what is so haunting…
cheers
z
February 9th, 2006 | Quote
Your blog is music.