It’s All Around

On a day to day basis, we all seem to ignore or gloss over commonplace things and items and concepts without truly recognizing their importance. It’s as if we have a filter over our brains that shuts us off to the items we know well enough, so that we’re always only looking for something new or interesting.

The first thing that comes to mind for this? Technology. It’s truly astounding how much of it is around us without actually being visible. Smart phones practically line every single pocket around the world, computers are in every building, and speakers and monitors riddle every room. This list doesn’t even include the numerous and random pieces of tech around kitchens, offices, and so forth.

But something that really sticks out to me on the daily is shipping boxes. For something so simple, cheap, and easily destructible, cardboard is quite honestly everywhere. I see it at work. I see it in my home. I see it in restaurants, outside along roads, and in stores wherever I shop.

One of the places I recently saw it was at a concert. The venue was quite small but the headlining band was actually a rather popular group. I was quite surprised that the venue was the size it was for the name of the band performing, but that wasn’t something I’d ever be upset about. The show lasted around 3 hours considering there was an opening act, too.

But the cardboard I saw around the place was just interesting to me. I saw a few boxes sitting up on the stage behind the bands’ gear, first off. This was something I don’t usually see at concerts, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Also, one place I saw other shipping boxes that wasn’t surprising was at the merch table. There were at least 20 different boxes containing shirts, stickers, albums, hats, and an assortment of other gear.

It’s just funny to me how often these sorts of things show up in your everyday life, yet half of the time or more you don’t actually pay attention to those everyday items. It’s not necessarily to say that you need to consider all sorts of commonplace things on the daily, but from time to time, it’s worth stopping and taking the time to appreciate the things that go unnoticed yet are used more than so many other things. Another one is plastic. Whether it’s containers, bottles, pens and other office supplies, or random things around your work office or home, plastic is absolutely everywhere.