I woke up this morning in a bit of a slump, nothing serious, just ‘ho hum’. On the heels of ‘ho hum’ I realized that I’ve carried a fantasy (for more years then I’d like to admit) that I hoped one day to become a great writer. Hot on the heels of this thought was the recognition that such a hope had more to do with desiring to have a purpose or to produce something of value, then passion for craft itself.
The weirdly funny thing is that long ago I discovered that I didn’t want to BE anything. Finding peace in simply allowing my life to be nothing more (AND nothing LESS) then my breathing in and out, I was more than satisfied to let go of ‘shoulds’ or striving to achieve benchmarks. I had finally learned how to be with myself, to love myself, and value being alive. Out of this flowed a deepening ability to sense life and observe life, to experience the essence of life. If I never accomplished anything else with my life, I was more than overpaid!
So harbingers of the past have come back to haunt me. Perhaps such thinking resurfaced because I’m spending too much time in front of the TV – the new opiate of the masses. It occurred to me that in this, our New Age, less and less people find peace in religion (the old opiate of the masses), so the Dark Ones have come up with another strategy!
Watching TV is like eating too much processed foods – feeling sluggish, yet hungry (despite being ‘full’), we become malnourished and exist in a state of torpor. Binge-eating on the stories of other people’s lives (real and imagined), I’m at risk for developing a strange form of agoraphobia. Much like housewives of old, vicariously living through ‘soap operas’, it becomes easier to forget how to live my own life,
Technology (and virtual reality) promise to alleviate humanity’s fear of being present with ourselves. Fear of wide open spaces has become the fear of openness and expansiveness, fear of a world devoid of mental activity. As blessed and miraculous as technology can be, it is a two-edged sword, having the power to cut out what makes us human and divine. Our unique essence falling with our heads as the guillotine drops. And we didn’t feel a thing.