media
Double Edged Storytelling
“As above, so below” — Hermes Trismegistus
In an odd way, it does seem there is a certain type of balance in the universe. Yet as far explaining it … well, I will leave that up to others wiser than me to figure out. However, yes I do have some observations I would like to communicate here. Like most of us, I am and do many different things; as a spiritual being, a human being, a man, a husband, a father, etc. But in my professional life I am essentially a storyteller, more specifically a filmmaker (and of course a writer). And that is where I am coming from in my observations today, here and now. I actually already started this conversation a few days ago on my other blog. For those of you who may want a little background on all this before you continue here, you should probably go there first – http://dreamsawakemovie.com/2013/01/the-path-of-story-you/ – because I don’t want to repeat myself here (so yes, it might be wise to go there first) …
From my point of view and after many years considering this, I feel the path of story is only the beginning point of a long spiritual journey for all of us, which encompasses many lifetimes of battle-tested physical existence. And yes, as that quote goes, I do think we are ‘spiritual beings having a physical experience’. So essentially, we are spiritual. And it seems, that having a physical life requires some type of physical timeline in which our life story plays out on. So, from the time we arrive as mere babes, we are trying to find our way on our life’s timeline. For we have things to do and places to go, in order that we learn the lessons we came here to learn. Over our time here our life plays out as its own unique story. Each of us unique in our being, unique in our timeline and unique in our story. So then, here you are now, beamed into the 21st century, inundated and saturated with story everywhere all around you; film, TV, radio, music, video games, internet, mobile, and who knows what next. How do you discover, or actually create, your own story in the midst of all this … intense clamoring distraction?
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.