What are you thinking about?

My mornings often include a visit to the local beach.  Most of the time I go there for the solitude.  It provides me with uninterrupted time to be with my thoughts.  The rhythmic surf is undemanding on my senses, and allows me to ignore those other distractions that would put an overbearing demand my limited "thinking bandwidth!"

Most of the time!

A few days ago, my writing time was interrupted by a text that simply said, "It is beautiful out..."

I responded graciously and went back to writing or at least tried.  My curiosity got the best of me and I walked out the door and was taken aback by how nice the weather had turned!

My "writing day" was ruined, at least until I inserted a beach walk.

I went to my usual place on the beach, stood for a few minutes and savored the sound.  Most of all, I cherished the fact that I was separated from my phone and in a 21st century sense...totally isolated!

I fell backward in a sitting position against my place on the wall and closed my eyes...feeling the morning sun's heat on my face, legs and arms and the breeze that simultaneously cooled me.  It was amazing and my mind momentarily blanked and I was "feeling the moment."  I intended to extend this simple joy as long as possible.

My section of the beach is uncrowded.  A person can exist there relatively alone and uninterrupted.  There are occasional beach walkers and runners.  A few lay quietly and add to their tans.  Others swim and play in the surf.  The best part is that they leave me alone...most of the time.  That is one of the reasons I like being there.

NOT TODAY!  My solitude was suddenly and uncharacteristically interrupted by a sweet feminine voice.  "Do you mind if I sit here?"

I opened my eyes and looked over and politely responded, "I don't mind, I am just sitting here and thinking...I don't think my thoughts are loud enough to be a bother and you definitely won't be for me..."

She laughed briefly and then the tranquility resumed.

I closed my eyes again and this time my mind drifted to and began focusing on a single thought...

Being polite...That was really nice of her to ask and not just "plop" down.  That is a uncommon behavior these days!

...then my mind shifted to political correctness...and how that was meant to create an environment of high end behaviors like the one I just experienced.

BUT...

On the outside, being politically correct is a worthwhile behavior, but it has been misused.

This upsets me.

Political correctness has driven us to apathy, and tolerance of less than acceptable behaviors and conditions.  Rather than improving the behaviors of our world, it has hurt it.  People have been using political correctness as a shield that they can stand behind that allows them to do unacceptable things and demand acceptance of others!

Political correctness has forced us to accept obesity, and bullying, laziness, lack of courtesy, disrespect and on and on!

Political Correctness should only apply to "states of being" and not applied to behaviors and actions.  As a result of our tolerance of less than unacceptable behaviors, our world is in a downward spiral.

Our Founding Fathers even warned against it and made laws in a valiant attempt to protect it!

It make me sad...

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the voice of the sitting companion, "What are you thinking about?"

"Why do you ask?" I responded.

"Because your face went from very happy to extremely intense to very sad in a moment." She replied.

Although I was not overjoyed with the interruption, I also saw this as an opportunity to share an interesting concept that more people should consider as an option to how they live.  So I quickly verbalized my thoughts.

"Wow! That's really a deep thought!" she noted.

That having been said we turned to the ocean and again went quiet.  We sat there for quite a while and I opened my eyes to see if she was still sitting in her place and found that she was.  This time I noticed that her eyes were closed and her face projected deep sadness and pain.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to me and replied, "I was thinking that I need a pedicure!"

What are you thinking about?