Is Anyone Listening?

I don't know if it is the fact that I am getting older or what, but I find myself growing increasingly appalled by people's behavior. I am on vacation right now in Miami and while sitting by the pool today I watched as young men and women chattered away on their cell phones as if they were brokering million dollar deals. Instead, they were merely gossiping with friends. I know this because they felt compelled to hold their conversations at a volume which ensured everyone within earshot would know how self-important they truly are.
I have also seen so many people walking together yet each one is talking away on their respective cell phone and not to each other. Something is seriously wrong with people.
We have become a society so disconnected from each other and so puffed up by our own over-weaning egos that we no longer seem to care about the people around us. In fact, last week as I walked through a store in the city I overheard a young woman laughingly say to her companion, "Oh, who cares about other people?" Though I think this woman thought she was being funny, she was actually articulating what I think is occurring in our communities on a daily basis. We are so wrapped up in our own little dramas that we have utter disregard for the impact our actions have on those around us.
My sister and I have had talked about this behavior within our own familiy. Perhaps this is why I have been struggling so much with the decision of whether I should attend the wedding of my niece next month at her Southern homophobic church. These are members of my immediate family who have so little to do with my everyday life I resent the sense of famlilial obligation which dictates the right thing to do would be to attend this wedding.
But why should I drag my partner, who does not wish to attend this ceremony, to attend something to which we are categorically denied and now watching legislation being drawn up to discriminate against us.
I am sure it has never even once crossed the mind of many of the members of my family how difficult and awkward I find this whole situation. I am sure we will go, put on a happy face, and endure the affair. But I think when it is all over, I am going to send my sister a letter and explain just how difficult it was for me to decide to attend. Not just because of the church, but because she and her children have so obviously made the choice to distance themselves from me as a result of my sexual orientation. And that I now believe their distancing should relieve me from any sense of duty to them.
SIGH! Family, the people we love to hate!