“When you look at your relationship to things – and the energy they contain – ask yourself if they promote joy, beauty, and usefulness, or are they burdensome.” – Oprah
As I waited to collect my luggage from baggage claim I was almost trampled by a woman so eager to claim her bags, she scurried past me, bumping one of my crutches causing me to fumble slightly forward. “Sure! Run the girl with the crutches over,” the woman standing to my side chimed. The eager bag lady looked at me with astonishment and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice.” Didn’t notice! I thought to myself, I’m practically walking on all fours here lady (slight exaggeration) how could you not notice? Then I saw it and I thought to myself, how could I NOT have noticed… As she turned back around all her attention once again was devoted to her Blackberry and she immediately went back to whatever was so enthralling her before causing her to not notice me.
After this incident at the airport a few months ago I began to think about the ways that technology has taken over our world. With all of our wonderful technological toys we have the capability to do an array of things at our fingertips. We no longer need to dial a friend’s number to talk, we can just text; we don’t have to go into the office to check e-mail, we can open our inbox from practically anywhere, and there is no need to visit our long lost friends on the other side of the world when we can save money and Skype! Although technology has made this large world a whole lot smaller and in many ways much more efficient and arguably better, I often find myself cursing our technologically advanced culture for reasons like eager bag lady. We become so wrapped up in our own small worlds that we tend to act like we’re the only one’s living in it. One of my favorite teachers used to say, “This is your world, I’m just living in it.” I think I finally understand what he meant by that!
As my bag came spinning around the carousel that day, I squeezed in between the woman who moments before pushed past me. I slung my bag over my shoulder and began to make my way toward the exit. Before walking out I glanced behind me one last time in curiosity, only to see her furiously pecking away on the tiny keyboard and I thought to myself, she was just inches away from knocking me and my unstable self to the ground; I wonder if she would have noticed that. I can’t help but think that technology is taking the human out of everything. If suddenly it was just you in the world, ‘Would you notice?’
“The whole idea of compassion is based on the keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.” – Thomas Merton
Technology at it's finest!
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