If you’ve ever been to San Francisco in the summer, you know that Mark “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” Twain was onto something.  I once spent a whole summer there, and even though I had a winter jacket with me, I would have to take a hot shower when I got home just to warm up.  The chill cuts right through you, even if you’re used to it.  I’ve lived some really cold places (Montreal, Buffalo, New York City, in order of coldest to least cold).  In the winter.  But none of that prepared me for summer in San Francisco.

I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this phenomenon.  I’m scared to look at reddit on this point, because who knows what kind of argumentative poseur scientist would splain the reason San Fransisco is or is not colder in the summer (we would probably get both, and for the record, I don’t mind reddit).  Of course, I’m going to be my own form of poseur with my own hypothesis here:  when something happens that is out of place, or out of context, the effects feel worse.

For example:  getting punched.  Never been punched, but I assume it hurts.  But I’ve got to assume that getting punched in a boxing ring feels a little easier than getting punched on the street.  Forgive the crude example. It illustrates my point:  we are a product of the environment around us.  The context that we live in.  And what happens around us will feel differently in different contexts.

My mom sent me this picture recently, and I just love my mom’s expression.  I of course do not remember this photo, but I remember the couch, the blanket, and my mom looking like that.  

Have you noticed lately that we as a society are losing our sensitivity to contexts?  Maybe it’s because, for better or for worse, the spaces are all the same.  We work from home, often.  We are all on the same social media platforms.  We travel more freely than any humans before us.  We used to have community center, formal and informal, where people would gather.

We seem to have none of these different spaces left.  Perhaps its because as the world becomes homogenized, our responses and our reactions are also being to be homogenized.  We are almost expected to react the same way no matter whether we are home, out on the street, at work, or at the grocery store.  Because the context doesn’t change, we don’t need to change either.

But what if we did? What if we paid attention to the context of the world we are currently inhabiting, even if the difference between spaces is subtle?  What would we find?  Would we change?

I would think that if we noticed where we were more often, or more deeply, we would have more connections to ourselves and to others.  And we would give each other and ourselves a little grace.  Someone close to me told me that they felt like they had been  in boiling water, and they didn’t realize it until they left.  If any of us had noticed their environment a little sooner, then perhaps they wouldn't have put up with being boiled for so long.  They wouldn’t have had to live like a robot, just pushing through, day after day.  

Have you noticed the homogenization in behavior too?  I’m going to take a look around a little more, and see how I react.  Who knows what we will find!

Love always,

Lauren

PS.  I got some fun responses about my turned around songs last week.  Here’s a sneaky little download of my song coming out at the end of the month, for you, my real ones!

And, if you’re in Buffalo, or anywhere near Buffalo, save the afternoon of July 7.  We are going to announce a very fun show at Niawanda Park … that I can only confirm once the city gives me approval in about 10 days!

THANKS FOR READING!