John Lennon sang " Life is that thing that happens when you are busy making other plans" I've always loved that song; "Beautiful Boy", I used to sing it to my son when he was an infant.
Priorities 
The Dali Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity,
answered " Man, because he sacrifices his health to make money.
Then he spends his money in order to recuperate his health.
And then he's so anxious about the future, he never enjoys the present;
the result being he neither lives in the present or the future;
he lives as if he's never going to die and then dies, never really having lived."
Blue Faces 
I took my bride to a five star restaurant not long ago, we dressed in our finest and planned to make an evening of it in order to celebrate her birthday. As we slowly dined on each course, we shared conversation and laughs and enjoyed top notch service and gourmet cuisine and a live jazz quartet; I couldn't help chuckle in dismay at the scene across the restaurant that caught my eye...
...the young couple seated across from us, the girl with a vacant look on her face, the young man with a "blue face" That's what I call those that stare into their i-phones in restaurants, at movies, the gym, etc. He was literally texting someone not there, while ignoring a lovely lady that was there...good luck with that romance buddy!
Italian Cafes VS. Starbucks 
I was fortunate enough to achieve a goal in 2009, travel to one of the country's of my heritage: Italy!
As my bride and I wandered in amazement through the streets of Florence,
in awe by the hundreds of years of architecture, art, history mixed with
"the now" and quaint little bars and cafes, I started to notice something interesting...
Italian bars and cafes (bars in Italy are more coffee bars, not typically alcohol service or a mix of both), they are alive with social energy, laughter, shouting...conversation. People are standing at the bar drinking shots of espresso, others seated dining on cakes and coffees and they are talking to each other, whether in groups or individuals who seem to start chatting with other strangers at times. They are alive with laughter and chatter. I never once saw a cell phone or a computer in any of these establishments.
Conversely; walk into any Starbucks in California, what do you hear? The click, click, click and tap, tap, tap of notebook computers and sadly the chatter of phone conversations, not face to face conversations. What you witness is more of an office environment; laptops, the occasional sales meeting or patrons on phones talking to those that are not there rather than with those that are there. I've even seen two women recently sitting together, but both were on their cell phones! My bride and I joked that they were probably talking to each other.
One of the stories on the news when I first moved to San Diego was a man was found dead in his car, he'd plowed into the back of an 18 wheeler and never hit his brakes? The highway patrol said they found a notebook computer on his lap powered on with e-mail open. Hope he was e-mailing the President of the USA some top secret files! Hope it was worth it?
So many have their lives on lay-away.
Today is a gift, that is why we call it the present!
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