If A Tree Falls In The Forest….

There’s an old saying “What if you held a party, and nobody came?”

I guess you’d call that a Soul Patrol Convention.

<So, I guess I’m new to this whole “Soul Patrol” thing. And I just don’t get it.

I’ve spent the last week, reading various boards and blogs. I still don’t get it.

I don’t understand the investment that people have with someone they’ve never met. I don’t understand why people believe that they should have input and/or judgement in what someone else decides what they should do with their career or their life.

I don’t understand why people feel that they have to be the ones that “know” it all. That they, and they alone, “know” what someone meant by a phrase, by a word, by a look.

Let’s flip this around. You are now the focus of this attention. You are now that person.

What are you going to do tomorrow? When you get up in the morning and dress for the day, do you realize that people are going to report on your outfit and decide whether or not you should have picked that to wear. Do you want to go on-line and read that people are “thudding” over your choice of shirt.

After you’re dressed, you decide what you’re going to do for breakfast. Do you dare go out in public to a restaurant? If you do, they’ll either follow you from your home, or accidentally stumble across you. They’ll report on what you ordered, they’ll report on who you were with, they’ll report on what kind of tip you left.

Breakfast is over. What’s next? It’s early yet, but you have to make your choices carefully. If you go to the grocery store, to stock your cabinets/fridge, so you can actually cook breakfast at home, you will probably be followed. Again, reports will be made to everyone on the items in your grocery cart.

It’s lunchtime. Do you really want a repeat of what happened at breakfast? Skip lunch.

Afternoon. You need to run some errands, because it’s not as if you have a full staff at home that takes care of things for you. But what might be a normal 10 minute run to the dry cleaners turns into 45 minutes, because you have to make nice with anyone who might recognize you and make sure that they get that picture for “Aunt Peg”.

So it’s taken 5 hours to run errands that would take a normal person maybe 2 hours to complete.

It’s Saturday night. You have a date. It’s someone you just met, and would like to get to know better. Do you dare go out in public, to a nice dinner? Do you risk being approached, being photographed? Does that person realize that if anyone sees you, that she will become a topic of conversation by many. Is she ready for all of this? Is it worth it?

Sounds like a fun life, doesn’t it?