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My friend, Drathari has a brand new topic up. Part of a the Proposal that I mentioned a bit back, inviting all, yes anyone, out there to join in an "exercise of wordsmithing."
I wasn't going to write this week, as the quote was mine and I thought that a bit redundant; but never let it be said that I can't find things to write about. Those of you out there who closest to me can stop laughing now. And no, it does not make me self-absorbed, either! ;-)
The "Topic," by the way, is:
BLECKH, must have more RAM!
And please bear in mind that you need not be on BlogSpot or on any kind of online journal to participate in this. :-) I again invite and all of my friends out there, those who know him, to join in the fun.
Drathari is also on LiveJournal as DevonSlate
"RAM," said the little 'puter, "RAM if you can!"
And they swam and they swam all over the dam.
heh Most people out there won't get that reference these days, but never mind it. Yes, I do need more RAM; sometimes in 2005, I offended the electronic gods and they have punished me. The computer had to be gutted and partially rebuilt. Thus the poor machine, though technically operating within equal bounds, is a bit slower in spots.
In the weeks of partial internet isolation, however, I began to maunder upon that interesting but equally unsolvable question: Why the hell do we need all of this crap just to get by comfortably these days? I mean, granted, life is better for the masses, but it seems to have become impossible to live a basic, simple life. I wrote to a friend once that "Poverty is the ultimate social captor, always. Yet, poverty in the city is worse. In a truly rural setting there are walks in the woods, living off the land, and almost always work of a physical if menial type to be found. In the urban sprawl, there is no escape, no other place to go. In a city, even the trees are patrolled." But, however true that is; it is the electronic age itself has become the electronic cage. It keeps you buying, and buying, and buying, just to help keep your KIDS up with simple schoolwork. And heaven forbid you try to go to college without it... you might as well take out an extra loan in the beginning and get it over with.
All right, it's not completely impossible. The Amish are still out there. heh But becoming net-connected is much like having power, or a phone, or a car in this day and age. Yes, you can certainly live without them, but once you strive to truly reach and therefore earn at a professional level? It's got you hooked like a catfish on a 30-lb line. And it's not really the internet -- it's connection in itself, that ability to contact people at the touch of a button that becomes so invaluable. I have a long-distance plan for the first time in probably seven years. Why? Because I suddenly have friends and family far afield who I wanted to hear in the flesh? Sure, but they've been there for a long while now. Because I had to contact clients for my studies in massage? Certainly, but I could have done that through the school. No, it was because I could no longer afford to be un-connected. Of course, I could get rid of it now that I'm back online... but I won't. Damned, monstrous, unyielding hook squarely planted in the proverbial jawbone.
But, that rant aside, I think that the above is simply a symptom of a problem that I think that we can all see happening. The unavoidable upkeep of peripheral things is leading to the degradation of things that we used to take for granted. Yes, I can see some of you slapping your heads. Fuck off; this is not some sermon from the pulpit about Sin and the perversions of our evil age. I'm talking about the basic dignities that we should afford one another, which too often get lost in the fibreoptic age. And who can blame folk for not keeping the effort going like they should? It is not evil, nor wrong, to realize that pushing the boulder up the mountain will eventually kill you if it falls. Nor, in the same way, is it truly wrong to let go because it seems you're in a fight you're going to lose. Damned sad, but not wrong.
Take courtesy. Simple, every-day courtesy. You've got people who can be in the same elevator, pass each other every day and not say "hi." Yes, yes, I know that's gone on in large cities since the beginning of the modern age. But you wouldn't hang up a phone with someone without at least a "Bye!" unless you were angry at them; and that's still considered rude. But I just watched four people I know personally, by name and face, just shut down their IMs for the night without so much as that. Ah, but that's nothing to get riled at, right? Happens all the time. It's not really talking after all... despite the fact that for some people this is the only contact they have with certain family and friends; but never mind. Again, boulder-and-mountain scenario. But when it happens more and more in the heart of Acadiana, in central Louisiana, where someone will STILL stop by the side of the road in the dead of night to help you if you run out of gas, I begin to get worried... and maybe even a little sick. And yet, I have been seeing it more and more; a distrust that seems to have a life of its own. I see the slight speeding of a step to move away instead of slowing with a smile; people who will not even answer to a civil "Good evening" and walk by without so much as a glance up. Katrina and influx of strangers be damned, we're still Cajuns and we should act like it. Not Cajun? Fine, take the example anyhow.
But again, we swing back to the needing of RAM. It's necessary now, in the long run, unavoidable, but the memory we really need is of the basic values we grew up with. That, my friends, doesn't depend upon money, and can be upgraded with a little effort if we're willing to give it. The boulder is till worth moving, and the mountain is not insurmountable. That recognition of basic dignity, that respect between people, is something that transcends labels of faith, age, even the internet. We cannot give up on it. We hear it prated about among the conservative religious, we hear it griped about among the elderly, and we've laughed it off.
Maybe we shouldn't.
After all, change may be growth, but growing sometimes means keeping your core true even as you adapt in the midst of changes. I wrote to another friend: "The first step toward being a healer is hearing the desperate scream in a silent whisper." The healing of a root may be minor, but without it the tree will surely die.
February 24 2006, 23:25:34 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
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