Cjfay.com – Magic Designagina

Return to Earth

Have you ever met someone, seen a picture, read a book, heard a song, that for some reason or another made you feel like you did when heading back to school Monday morning after a good camping trip? You know, that nostalgic unsettling feeling of life passing into memory when you wish it wouldn’t. For the most part, I don’t notice it happening – the days slip by without consideration of the tally gaining on me, the cost of living in such haste, consumerism, technology, and modernization pushing me blindly – and generally happily I will add.

Sometimes though, usually by surprise, I’ll hit something that for a moment takes me to another place – breaks my stride – forces me out of the clouds of commotion and into a place more thoughtful. The last time I remember this happening for me was after watching Into the Wild, the Sean Penn true story film trailing a young and unsettled man’s journey out of society and into the depths of Alaska, where he ultimately dies alone of starvation. Some claimed he died an ignorant death sensationalized by the movie and the media – mostly the Alaskans. For whatever reason I identified with the character’s desperate fight to find a breadth of air worth breathing – his transience, and free spirit – probably because I embody very few of these qualities by nature and envy those who do. At least in those moments when I’m aware of it, which again, are few and far between.

Recently – well today – I came across a link that was posted by a fellow Envato forum user regarding a client he had worked with. The link was not to highlight the site, but more of a subreference to some other topic, and found my spidering habits took me there without thinking. The site looked normal at first, was Flash based, and in all took about 10 minutes to load. Fortunately most of the loading happens in the background and I was presented with an interesting horizontally scrolling visual dialog of a musician – Orba Squara – and his 10 day journey across the country to ‘Play some new music’. I found the transition of places, comments, and people unfamiliar yet comforting – it was refreshing, and for a few minutes helped me to remember that life exists outside my vortex. There seemed a true fascination with life and an appreciation for experience – something I preach and live little. You can check out the site here.

Maybe it was just me, the song I was listening to right then, or the positioning of the sun. Who knows -either way, I enjoy these unexpected moments and figured I’d share the link…