Why are old ways so important?
When everything in pursuit of Community is new, we have lost valuable lessons and ways from the past. The dusty old pathways trodden by “the ancients” were not just for the pursuit of knowledge. Rather, wisdom was central to their pursuit and paths. Often, they traveled far less than their modern-day counterparts. In closer proximity to one another, and without the siege and distractions of media, simply getting to know people was important. That meant connections. Community. Understanding. Discovering wisdom instead of just the pursuit of knowledge.
There is no shortage of knowledge in our present day. Many things compete for our attention. The television has hundreds of stations. Then there are free or subscription streaming services. Most of them are quite happy to secure a monthly subscription, complete with hidden fees buried in advertising and the harvesting of valuable market data and consumer preferences. Teaching and self-help videos explode in waves on the major platforms. “New releases” are all pre-engineered to feed the behemoth of knowledge as the media giants war in the octagon.
Entertainment continues on, unabated. Change it up with some “shorts”—many with dubious choreography, meaning, or relevance to a full life.
Enormous data warehouses, data lakes of unimaginable depth buried in the cloud emerge. That data is all … about … you. They are like a large kraken crawling on to the shore after supping with a murky leviathan of the sea’s abyss.
As any expert in surveillance will tell you, our everyday patterns of life are quite predictable to a trained observer. Expand that with thousands of measurement points of the patterns of your life. Spin it up to speed with Artificial Intelligence. After all, human observers might watch patterns by exceptions. But AI moves exception and pattern analysis to a whole new level.
Hypnotic blinking-icons on every device—the Internet of Things or IoT—emerge with the kraken. They are ready to pick your pocket clean as appliances break down—incapable of repair—and call out for the latest and greatest. Fuel up the car. Spend more time and money. Join the rat race of busyness. Work overtime to pay for the latest and greatest.
Exhausted, a pricey cruise and vacation awaits you. Soon, we will repair and patch you up enough to reenter the merry-go-round of everyday modern life. It’s time to reenter the kraken’s whirlwind at the office or whatever form of the daily grind awaits you.
But wisdom does not enter this theater of life—her world is a quieter one.
The boisterous din of the kraken’s battle with the behemoth of the bone-tiring pursuit of knowledge drowned out wisdom’s utterances. Emboldened by the din of leviathan’s tail thrashing on the shore, they exalted knowledge in society.
We are making a mistake when we lose old in Community. We must keep new and old in balance.
The boomer’s old dials on grandma’s ancient stove still function. I heard her muttering about a 20-year-old stove coil element that finally packed it in (it was due for a change). Thanksgiving is just a day away. A trip to the local hardware store and $20 trumped what she used to pay ($5). No handyperson needed. A pair of old scissors to remove the price tag. 30 seconds to pull out the old one and pop the new one in. She knew exactly what to do—she had pulled the elements out before cleaning the under-element drip pans.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Her pie will be ready.
Grandma had enough time left over to enjoy a cup of tea with you and water her roses.
She slept well.
Her old ways served her well.
Her grandchildren offered to buy her a new stove. She smiled as they asked for seconds of her delicious pie. “No, thank you. I think my old one is just fine. But thank you for your offer.”
Now, even younger people, raised in a culture of relying on electronic buttons for almost everything, are questioning the reasons behind it. What is wrong with the simple flip phone? Why not just hang out with my friends and talk? What a novel idea: talking instead of texting.You know—that face-to-face thing with eye contact and body language. What is wrong with a knob that rarely malfunctions? Why do we have to have everything so complex?
The author of this article has a late model iPhone. It’s handy. When I really need it. But the old ways were just fine when I grew up.
It was a less stressful world. Imperfect? Yes, it was. But overall, it was less stressful.
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