spotify vrbo ads and the empty easter bunny

I have been listening over and over to the Vrbo ads through the Spotify application - no that I want to, but they are really running an intensive campaign, to say the least. Every time I listen to it, I feel uneasy. I feel it highlights one of the biggest issues of our time.

I’m not talking about war, politics, or the economy - those are really big and major crisis of our time. But beyond all of this, and in many ways related to all of it, lies something else.

The feelings expressed in the ad are sadly simple and crystal clear.

We don't want to see and discover each other. We don't want to talk to each other. We call by phone, hoping to reach the answering machine. We don't want to take much time with others.

Other than, of course, our very close circle.

We see weight and complication when we should see joy and enlightenment.

I sometimes feel it and find myself in this position. Where, I don’t want to "engage." I just want to put on my headset, do my things, the work etc,,, and be left alone.

Even though I know very well where this path leads : darkness, emptiness and becoming an empty shell.

And other times, I bring time to time some desert to my workplace. With no expectations and waiting nothing in return, at the exception to try, to get my coworkers out of their routine and for a couple of seconds, minutes seeing them exchanging with me, with one and another. Sharing some laughs, some simple things about life. it warms my heart.  

I once heard someone compare our generation to Easter chocolates: Very pretty on the outside, empty in the inside. I relate.

All of this is sad and wrong, but there is hope. I like to think that there is always hope. Sometimes it’s hard to find, but it’s there. Somewhere. Always.

A week ago, I went to the grocery store. First, I noticed more and more some people are now bringing their headsets to make their groceries ...

And then I saw someone pushing his cart firmly from one side to another, with a stern face. The kind that immediately signals, "Better to avoid."

I was intrigued. I don’t know why. I couldn’t stop glancing at him from time to time.

At one point, I saw this person mistakenly take someone else’s cart. When the other person spoke to him, his stern face lit up, from 0 to 300%.

I don’t know what they said to each other. probably sorry this is my cart . It was just a few words exchanged with a smile and his face changed completely. It was as if the other person had made his day!

Who would have thought that was possible? Such a radical change. It was like seeing two completely different people.

I thought to myself: It is possible! We have the power to drastically change our behavior, our mood - almost in an instant.

Well, as long as we want to ...

Another situation where I’ve seen a similar change is when people are "outside" - Visiting or staying somewhere far from home, talking to strangers from a foreign land.

Not all the time, but when they are open to giving and open to receiving, there is magic happening. They become different.

All the muscles in their face shift to smile mode. Joy radiates all around them, and suddenly, they are all connected. They can share and exchange with others.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a switch to enable and keep this feeling, this naïve and beautiful state of being - without fear, without second thoughts? a switch that could not be disabled.

Just being in the moment, enjoying wherever the moment is, enjoying whomever you are sharing this moment with.

Every. Single. Time.

Not just when you feel like it. Not just when you are somewhere we want to be.
But rather Every. Single. Time.

I know some will think that all this is just wishful thinking, that all this not possible in our current time. 

It may be wishful thinking but I like to keep thinking that way, even if it's against all the odds. It may seem not be possible in the current time, so it was sending man to moon just years ago.

I think, that would make all the difference in the world. That would allow us to see each other for what we are.

Beautiful, unique humans.

Ricardo Fonseca