Thinking Out LoudI was on holidays at Nambucca Heads recently and found myself on the local breakwall where all the rocks are decorated with a kind of domestic graffiti. You know the type: family doodles, folk art, weathered declarations of affection.
This time, something about them caught me off guard – this pre-digital stream of humanity. There was no audience being curated, no feedback mechanism, no performative distortion, just a gallery of tributes. Each piece a glimpse into a joyous moment or a significant relationship – an overflow of something real.
It stirred a level of emotion which took me by surprise.
There was a time when success wasn’t measured by the degree to which our “personal brand” was consumed and endorsed by others. A time before social media ruthlessly manipulated our need for attention and approval. Centuries before the rise of likes and feeds, Blaise Pascal observed in his Pensées:
“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real.”
Pascal’s words expose this very human frailty that the digital age now exploits: the urge to perform, to curate, to seek validation in the eyes of others.
I’m not particularly sentimental, yet there was something quietly captivating about these humble breakwall memorials, a timely reminder of what it means to be human; to be present with others, to pause and honour love that endures, to create celebrations that don’t need an audience.
We live in a world that craves adulation and infamy – but for a moment, I was ambushed by humanity. And it was beautiful.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.