Not Worldly

I need to rededicate part of the effort my brain expends every day on work, worrying about work, and worrying about how my work's paycheck can pay for bills towards more worldly items like getting to know people better, partying, learing about what really goes on around me, and not being blind to the way people act and the things they say. I've got illusions that I could be a writer of interesting things, but then I go and read other people's blogs, or catch part of the Daily Show, or listen to a guest on NPR, and I see just how smart and insightful so many other people really are, and just how plain and empty I am. Now that's not a dig against myself (suprisingly), so much as it is an eye opening experience of the gap between who I am and who I want to be. I want to contribute something good and meaningful to the world. And I want it to be more than just having ferried people around in a bus for a couple years or designed some cool mechanical shit. What's missing here? How do I build a bridge to get from this side of the river of life over to that other bank where stuff is happening?