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Wired Up & Down, Part 1
“The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.” – Thomas Sowell
In my humble estimation the worst invention in the history of humankind was the television set. It was the beginning of a hypnotic march towards unbridled voyeurism, insidious sedentary-ism, and cloistered groupthink masquerading as expressive individualism. The countless modern distractions now take so much away from a rich inner life that it only leaves us drained, and longing for more and more media to fill the sagging emptiness, day in and day out. We have been duped once again, fair people. And the enemy is us.
Yes, it all started out so innocently. Those 50’s TV sets were such fun new novelties where our families could sit around and watch their favorite shows together. And yes, actually it was a logical outgrowth of radio’s popularity. I know I certainly had fun growing up in the fifties and sixties watching my favorite shows, or whatever I was allowed to watch. Because back then we were limited how much we could watch, because it always seemed we had so many other things to do.
Next thing that came were color TV’s, and bigger TV’s, and then cable, because early on we only had the three main networks, and eventually PBS. So as time marched on, more and more stations, and more shows, and longer hours. And VCR’s came along and we could record shows and buy videos of moves to watch on TV. More and more distractions. And guess what else? Drama. More and more drama in our life. If dealing with our own daily dramas wasn’t enough, now we got inundated with all these other dramas to keep us enthralled. But what else? Colored, distracted and tensed out, we demanded more. For why pay attention to our boring little lives when we could tune into something much more intriguing, and falsely satisfying? Why eat real, nutritious fruit with a blemish on it when we can have perfect-looking plastic fruit we can watch but don’t really have to eat? So safe and distant, but so alluring and demanding.
Finer Moments
“Life is eternal, and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” – Rossiter R. Raymond
Exactly twelve years ago today was not a happy one for me. But it was quite instructive. Debbie, my wife of 17 years, and the mother of my two sons, passed from the physical world and into the next one. She had been fighting cancer for four years, and the battle had just taken too much of a toll on her body. That actual day she passed is still very vivid in my memory. Her mother, our two sons, and myself were present at her bedside. She had chosen to be at home when this happened. Within an hour after she left and when the funeral home was taking her body for cremation, I suddenly saw her standing in the area connecting the dining room to the living room. Now of course, I’m talking about her ‘spirit’ presence. And I didn’t see her with my physical eyes, but my spiritual sense of sight. She seemed to be floating about two feet off the ground and she looked radiant, but with this puzzled look on her face. Then she spoke to me in my mind, wanting to know what all this fuss was about.
The Fear Machine
“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don’t buy it. Not only don’t I buy it, I just didn’t, and don’t, get it.
So, you ever notice how the world seems driven by fear? Gotta work harder and faster to pay all those bills, because if I don’t I’m afraid I won’t be able to eat, have shelter, or find a suitable partner to couple with, and then I’ll die. Gotta hunt more or grow more foot so I can eat, or I’m afraid I’ll die. Gotta kill those other people over there or I’m afraid they’ll take my land, and then I might die. Gotta get more stuff, or I’m afraid I won’t have enough stuff, and then I could die. Gotta do this or that, or I won’t have this or that, and that means I’m gonna die. That’s what it comes down to, right? Being afraid we might die, right? Because we got all these things so we don’t die. And if we die, oh my, we’re dead and gone, and never ever more trips to Oz.
Like I said, I didn’t, and I don’t, buy it. We’ve been sold a bill of goods, all based on fear.
A Longer Wheel
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.” – William Blake
Being our first year at college was certainly the last thing on our minds that weekend night. After having partook of the latest entertainment chemical mix, the four of us guys drove around like crazy. It should be logical that flying high and speeding around in a hot car don’t mix. But having a flat tire on top of that didn’t bode well for the rest of evening.
The first thing we did was not to look for the jack, but to lie back in a field looking up at the stars. I had never seen the night glow like that, nor the stars dance so much. And yes, on top of all that, it happened once again.
As I flowed into the ebb and flow mixture of the nightly lights and spheres, the ripping pressure in my chest pulled me away. And the rising sensation totally changed my perspective. My gyroscoping point of view shot fear throughout my body. My physical body, which I was no longer a part of. Now I found my ‘self’ shooting towards the heavens, completely out of and away from my body. And I heard that damn ringing sound again. Oh hell.
The Lower High Way
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” – Joseph Campbell
What a drag high school could be. Or maybe it was just school in general. Or maybe it was because by the time I reached high school I had already been to six different schools. Six schools in nine years, through eighth grade (counting kindergarten). And then high school came around, and I was in three schools in four years. So a total of nine different schools in my 13 years of public education. Yeah, that was probably it. Not much stability in that. And then add to that that I was a shy kid, so not much else for me to be but a loner. But I got used to that, even though I was in a large family. So, as the oldest of seven kids, I pretty much kept to myself. But oddly enough, I got good grades in school, but looking back now I think it was because it was too easy. I rarely felt challenged, and I just floated through with not a lot of effort.
My main escape was my own imagination. And boy could I put that into overdrive. At eleven and twelve I remember hording comic books and going into the closet with a flashlight, closing the closet and reading comic book after comic book. And flying away with my heroes to other worlds. And no one in family really knowing where I was. But then by the time I was 14, I found a Playboy magazine and everything changed. Even, of course, the direction of my imagination.