This Top-Fuel Clunker

—02.04.2000—

I hear so much talk devoted to new media, computer skills, and technology. Even here on the little island people are not immune. They don’t want their children “to be left behind.” Maybe it would be better to be left behind. Where the hell is everyone rushing off to in such a hurry? I perceive that the speed of “progress” has outstripped the headlights of our wisdom, which, alarmingly, seem to be growing dimmer. Do the brakes on this top-fuel clunker even work? The worst part is that we’re all crowded in the back seat, all six billion of us, and I can’t find the seatbelt.

Sorry—wait—I’m getting off on a tangent. What I meant to say was this: what if instead of focusing on technology, we focused on a core set of skills? Based on my observations of on the island, these appear to be valuable: to be able to communicate both in public and in private, to connect intimately with another (both emotionally and physically), to advocate for one’s needs, to learn a skill, to maintain what one has, and to assist children on their journey toward conscious, responsible, happy lives. Am I being too idealistic?

Maybe we get muddled in the “learn a skill” part. Technological progress, it seems, is an enduring and seductive temptress. We still appear as dewey-eyed and smitten with her as we’ve been for the past few hundred (thousand?) years. So now, when the she says “Darling, look, I’ve invented computers. It will be just like old times. How much fun we had! The speed, the thrill, the immense volumes! You remember, don't you?” And we stare, far off and smitten, nodding, “Yes, yes. My God, how I love you! Tell me everything...” How tragic and silly we are.

——

Please, please go out and look at words twisted through glass and light; eat; listen to music and feel the ebbs and flows pulling on the parts of you that you’ve known from birth; let yourself fade away, as if never to return. Close your eyes. Please let yourself twist and dream about the things that make your chest resonate and hum, that fill you with effortless surges of delight. Please do this before the mist melts, the stars fade, and you find yourself on a quiet path littered with memories.

—02.03.2023—

Oh boy... I mean, I like those skills and that last paragraph still feels good but sheesh...

OK—yes, progress appears to be moving faster and faster. And, no, we don’t appear to have brakes, seatbelts, or longterm policy wisdom. And yet, years on, I don’t feel I’m the luddite I made myself out to be in that post. And I apologize for, and rescind, my judgement of us being tragic and silly. Judgement is something I’ve been happy to release in the intervening years.

And as far as technological progress, that seductive temptress, I think we find her so attractive because it is our nature, and the nature of all beings, I believe, to grow, learn, and evolve. Maybe we find her extra sexy though because she promises power and ease. Does progress in consciousness or unity seem less sexy because those don’t have an advertising agency?

I think it’s the how of learning and growth in which I think we sometimes take the longer path. We do all have our own steering wheels. I hope we drive ourselves down roads of using our resources wisely, of stewarding the land, and of nurturing our connections to one another, and all beings.

As always, I wish you well on your journey and wish you love.