How Hugh Grant Got Me Thinking!

 

 

 

 

 

So, this morning in the wee hours of about 6:30 am on what was supposed to be my Sunday for sleep in! I, again, found myself reading an article I had stumbled upon (accidentally of course). The article was actually a kind of tongue in cheek interview with Hugh Grant about a short series he’d just completed. He was talking pretty candidly about his engagement with his Twitter feed and how people were receiving him (either positively or negatively) about his latest project.

 

For the most part he was as always charming, witty, and humorous about how he was dealing with the overt and sometimes outrageously rude comments people made about him or his aged appearance. At first, I chuckled at his witty commentary about it all, but I soon began to read between the lines of his words. They were often sad and seemed to come from a shielded place of pain. In particularly, one statement shook me the most and ironically were the very last words of the article...

 

“I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. In the old days, you just sat in the cinema with people and if they laughed you were happy, and if they didn't you were sad. But you didn't know any of these terrible things, [like] they think you've got awful bottom teeth." ( CNN Website, December 13, 2020)

 

In those final words I realized two things:

 1. I am again faced with recognizing this pattern of behavior from people online where people for whatever reason totally and completely dog another simply because they can, and

 2. I realized just how far out of touch we have become as an uncaring and an unkind society. I have written about this uncomfortable phenomenon before, but for some reason today it just really struck me just how far down the rabbit hole we’ve travels in the decaying of our human interactions and connectivity.

 

I know some will think I’m being a bit over or rather hyper reactive to this article, I mean, after all, people can disagree, they have a right to dislike someone’s performance in a film, and yes, they can even just simply not like the person. These are all true and valid arguments, and I am not disputing these facts; however, I still believe and feel deeply that our artificial and often times computerized connects are rendering us alarmingly numb to human emotions and feelings.

 

It has become so easy for us as a society to simply type out our hate and contempt for others behind the security of our own closed doors. Yet, ironically, it seems as if it’s harder for us to show and express our love and respect for our fellow man in that same space. I ask myself daily, what the hell is wrong with us as a society? I mean seriously what compels us to act so barbarically towards one another without fear of Consequence? Why is it easier to type out our contempt then it is to type out our love for one another?

 

I think about my own posts and my own messaging in this respect and I wonder, how have I come across to others? In my words do they feel safe and welcomed, or have my words caused them pain or self-doubting? My hope is of course the former, but still I wonder how much of a role I myself have played in the numbing down of the human connection.

 

Unfortunately, this blasted pandemic has not of course made any of this any easier. We are forced daily into an artificial environment and we are asked daily to post, express, tweet, twitter, grammy, book it, or stay link in all while keeping our distance. I mean, it’s really hard to stay connected to what’s overtly human when our interactions are plastered on a screen. Ironically, I think I now better understand that some people aren’t fighting for their rights per say as much as they are fighting to preserve their various connections.

 

To that point I get it! I truly and deeply get it and emphasize with those feelings of loss and despair (Okay, okay before I myself get accosted or miss quoted here is my little Disclaimer: I also get that we are where we are at because of the need to remain healthy and alive...so don’t get it twisted I’m a nurse and I support public health and social distancing, and yes masks!)

 

But I also understand how our relationships and our human connectivity impacts our will to survive. We are, as humans, pack animals and as such we need those connections or apart of us dies. We become numb, and we type out our contempt without any regard for how our words effect those we interact with. Cause and effect perhaps?!

 

So...to that end what is the cure? What is the pill that gets us back to being kind and caring human beings? How in the middle of a pandemic that forces us apart do we further bond with the people in our world? Welp, I don’t know all the answers, but I do know this...it has to start somewhere and if that somewhere is within my own soul then I guess that’s as good of a place to start as any 🤷🏾‍♀️

 

Well, that’s it for me! Be caring and kind today, type out more of your love than your contempt and just as I always say...be good humans. Most importantly don’t forget to away let your gratitude fuel your attitude!

 

 

Carol Hill is a mom, a long time nurse, certified professional  life and leadership development coach, a consultant, and Lead Happiness Ambassador and the owner/operator of Just Chill Custom Gifting By Carol. 

 

Resource

 CNN Website Garvey M.  (2020). Hugh Grant spent hours spiraling down 'The Undoing' Twitter feeds. Retrieved December 13, 2020 from https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/entertainment/hugh-grant-the-undoing-trnd/index.html