We learn something new every day. In fact some days I feel like I am learning all day long! I am getting used to my new computer which also has a tablet function. In many ways I feel blessed to live in such a time when technology makes lives so much easier. My passion is writing – I love words and I love communicating. I often rant about the lack of understanding of the basic roots of the English language. Our culture is embedded in the language and our history. Many words have French origins, many Anglo Saxon or German origins, others Viking and many more Celtic. Our language is a mirror image of our civilisation. Now we have adopted words from the many new cultures that have influenced our language in my lifetime.
My grandmother did not have the opportunity to go to school passed the age of fifteen and she gained all her learning from books. She wrote exceptional poetry and would read the tales of Hiawatha to me when I was a child with such feeling and emotion. She loved the worlds that literature could lead you to.
I write all day. I write for my work [procedures, policies, plans, corporate documents etc], for my research – [academic papers and position statements] and for my hobbies [my blogs, my ebooks,] and last but not least for sanity [to express my thoughts and feelings and unload them onto paper]. It is now possible to publish your own books at an economic rate; and to access a wide group of people through the internet from a whole range of backgrounds.
My children do take technology for granted. Thirty-five years ago we had to do mental maths at school because calculators were uncommon; shop tills didn’t add up for you; we had slide-rules to work out difficult maths (anyone under thirty probably doesn’t know what a slide rule is!)
When I explain the excitement in my late teens when the early games “pac man” and “space invaders” arrived on the scene and some strange game of table tennis that involved a dot going from side to side on a screen, they can’t believe the journey that has taken place. I ask if some of the wonderment has gone too? As I battle to learn to use a stylus on my tablet – it is old hat to the children; as I enjoy the possibilities of catching up with friends from my childhood on Facebook – it is for them the norm. So what does create a sense of wonder now for young people? We all need a bit of wonderment in our lives that feeling we have discovered a new author we enjoy reading, a new restaurant, a new friend or colleague. My grandmother found life so full of joy and wonderful moments. She didn’t have any of the technology we have to make her life “easier” but she took nothing for granted, enjoyed every moment.
There is wonder all around us in the non-human, natural world. I tried to raise my children to appreciate the beauty of our living planet, but when they were young they were continually distracted by machines, especially computer games. Now they are in their 20s and finally understanding what I was getting at. But they complain that a lot of people their age have no appreciation for the non-human world.
I am afraid that our modern, Westernized culture has become collectively narcissistic, in the sense that we can only appreciate as "wonderful" those things that are generated by. . .us(!), like books, movies, cars, games, etc. We cannot get outside of the human mindset and have empathy for, and delight in, other forms of life. This is sad, as our lack of care is hurting other beings, and may ultimately be the cause of our own demise.
Posted by: RuthHenriquez | May 14, 2009 at 10:18 PM