Simply Enlightened

Our generation has come into the world with quite an inheritance.  Technology, information and science are catapulting forward the way human beings interact with their environment. We whiz about the electronic universe on our iPhone while hurtling down the highway at 85 miles an hour to make it
to our college class where we stop for an hour to listen to a lecture about the indigenous Kung Bushmen from Africa who snort green powder up their nose as a form of hallucinogenic. We leave class and use GPS to navigate over to the new Thai restaurant where we get to eat the same dish as an indigenous Southeast Asian peasant, thousands of miles away.

The glow of the computer screen irradiates our pale faces as we spend hours and hours fashioning our own personal web pages where we carve out our own electronic self-image. The ability to add or delete a “friend” at the click of a button gives us a delightful sense of omnipotence. Yawning at our iPad, we pack it up, scoot back our chair, grab our rolled-up purple yoga mat from the closet, and shuttle off to an hour long session of authentic Hindu exercises that they claim will make all the energy in our body flow in the same direction. That’s a good thing, right? And if we happen to get stuck in traffic on the way, we can pop in our “Enlightenment for Dummies” DVD we just bought for $5 at the checkout stand in the grocery store.

We’ve seen it all, we’ve heard it all, we’ve done just about all of it… now what? If we human beings can scan the vastness of space and probe the depths of the ocean, why are we at such a loss for words when we attempt to have a deep conversation with the person sitting right next to us. Or what about having one with our parents?  But who would want to do that? What do they know, anyway? They’re the ones whogot us into this mess in the first place.