Living Vicariously

How did you waste your time today?

No, that is too harsh.

How did you spend your waking hours today?

How much screen time did you spend?

How much social media or viral YouTube did you watch?

What was the show before the last show you watched?

When you read a book, view a movie or a play, hear a concert or read a poem you are living vicariously through someone else.

Experiencing another’s vision or thought as if it was your own.

We dress like our idols, we smell what they tell us to smell like, we buy the cars everyone tells us to, we go to events suggested by others, we listen to the top 40 and learn the latest dance steps.

Want to be a cowboy? Ride along with John Wayne.

Want to be a cook? Rachael Ray will show you how.

Want to be a spaceman? Follow the Star War’s saga or power up any video game.

Want to be the best lover ever? There is plenty of porn for you to do it alone.

Want to have great dance moves? Follow the step-by-step then watch a Prince video.

What robots do well is repetition.

In an effort to fit in with the norm, we follow like lemmings not even knowing we have lost self-control.

Emulation is not creation.

After viewing our elders as guiding lights, we turn to our children to give our fading life meaning.

Once age creeps up on us and we find ourselves following other’s commands being incapable of free movement but still within mental awareness, we start to diagnosis our vicarious lives.

Don’t worry. They only put your name, date of birth and date of death on your tombstone.