Spending time with long absent friends this weekend, I noticed a prevailing theme in our conversation. Everyone I know is exhausted and disgusted with social media and constant connectivity. It was supposed to be a revolution in communication, but instead we feel voyeuristic and exploited, and relationships have been cheapened and made superficial. The word “friend” has become ostensibly meaningless in the culture at large. I have hundreds of them. Yet we religiously update our status and poke our friends as if we’ve been defeated. I use promoting this website as my excuse for doing it. Everyone’s got their own excuse. The truth is we like it, and we’re worse people for it. Mark Zuckerburg says you are worth a hundred dollars to him. That makes me want to take a shower. This is a song about real friendship. The list of facts that you read about your friends on their timelines are not the truth. They might be true, but you can’t learn the truth in somebody unless you do it the old fashioned way. You talk. You listen. You write a letter and you take the time to make it mean something. You share a meal. You share a drink. You think hard about somebody. You tell them they matter to you. You poke them - with your actual finger - and you know they’re real.
Thanks to Rebecca Horton for existing and inviting me on an adventure this weekend. Also thanks to Rebecca for talking to Rob’s cat in a sweet voice within range of the microphone that I was using to write this song. It’s my favorite part of the song.
lyrics
You know I believe
In all these old fashioned things
Like spending time
And saying sooth
We live like spies
But fact ain’t truth
I got news for you kid
You’ve got nothing to lose
You got time
You got plenty of folks trying to find you
Look at your head in the clouds
It seemed like Earth
But it’s dead somehow
And you’ve got this move
Where you cover your eyes
And you wrap up your heart
And you run and you hide
I got news for you kid
You ain’t got nothing to lose
You got time
You got plenty of folks trying to find you
And you’re in love
With the embellishments and half truths above you
You got time
Wouldn’t you spend it with people who love you