Our voracious technology appetite is a response to a deep hunger which things will never satisfy.  This is a hunger for connection with each other and the natural world,  Yet we are told to consume in order to feed our hunger.  Advertising tells us we are lacking and in order to feel better we should buy stuff.   We are programmed with an insatiable addictive consumer drive to acquire the latest iPhone or Android, or buy the big/bigger/biggest wide screen TV.  Feeding these gadgets is content, the vast set of entertainment, misogynistic porn, gambling and mental titillation which washes over us almost 24x7, distracting us, temporarily soothing us, briefly making the pain go away.  Where is this tidal wave of information leading us to?  For all the stories of the internet building community (admittedly this is how you are reading this blog) consumerism and becoming lost in the  sea of content is driving us apart and further disconnecting one from the other.  When we mainline soul absent "entertainment" we become addicts who ignore their loved ones and only focus on the next fix.

Consumerism has two components in this addictive, connection wrecking cycle; the purchasing of products created at an almost inconceivable and tuning into the thousands of channels of largely useless, mindless, heartless content.  These two aspects of consumerism substitute for actual human to human and human to nature connections.

Consider what it takes to create the all the products we consume.  The atrocities done to the planet and her people to mine raw materials, to transport the materials, to fuel the factories, to transform the raw materials into electronics, to assemble electronics into finished products and then transport these products to our shores for distribution are staggering (see Conflict Minerals - this deserves a post of its own),

And what are we doing with all that content?  We spend more and more time in front of a screen rather than in nature or in conversation with each other (face to face, without someone texting or reading the latest FB post).

I wonder if the greatly hyped "Virtual Reality", which is enabled by strap on head goggles fully blocking our view of the "Real Reality" will drive us closer to the dystopian view of the Matrix or other future shock movies where humans no longer interact person to person, but all connection is mediated through a machine?  Will we finally disconnect ourselves from each other and, rather, plug into the nearest wall outlet?

As the news article at the end of this blog states, all this content, especially virtual reality will drive more and more demand for internet bandwidth.  The race for more bits per second will continue at a blinding rate.  Driving faster electronics, driving faster obsolesce, driving the hunger for more raw materials.

When does it stop?  Does it stop when the Earth, the women and the children have been raped until there is nothing left?

But, we don't have to hurtle into oblivion.

Unplug.  
  Consume less.  
    Walk, talk, sing and dance more.  

We are the resistance. 
​

​Virtual Reality picture source:  ​http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32997.0
Virtual Reality article source:  Sorry, lost the press source, but a similar article can be found at ​http://www.cablelabs.com/vr-you-have-to-experience-it/

I wrote the following about three months ago.  A melancholia wraps itself around me from time to time.  Feelings of overwhelm arrive, hope grows thin and I withdraw from my friends.  Thankfully my friends love me and provide a safe container for whatever is present.  I have come to recognize the darkness as another teacher, not to be feared or blamed, but to be curious and perhaps bring to art.  Write poetry with it, dance it, engage it in loving conversation.  I write this right now from a loving witness place.  When I'm possessed by the darkness, it's a whole different ballgame and a post like this sounds like airy-fairy embrace your pain shit .  Grace, love, small embers of faith, something - pulls me out.  We all need help digging our way out.  What pulls you through?

Faith
by David Whyte

I want to write about faith,
        about the way the moon rises
            over cold snow, night after night,

faithful even as it fades from fullness,
        slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
            sliver of light before the final darkness.

But I have no faith myself,
        I refuse it the smallest entry.

Let this then, my small poem,
        like a new moon, slender and barely open,
            be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

I like to think of my soul as a lover longing for me, inviting me, wanting me.  Every time I hear Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road", its my soul calling out to me....

"So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore"  I need to know it's not too late and yes I'm scared.  "Show a little faith, there's magic in the night"  All of who I am is alright with my soul.  So do I stay on that front porch?

How often have I stayed stuck or looked to be rescued by a relationship, or by getting the right job or buying the right gadget?  Have I wasted the summer of my life ignoring my very self?

This culture is all about heroes, especially for men.  Rise up, be heroic.  Our redemption lies in the gritty, the dirty, the real.

​Our souls invite us, the door is open:

"The ride ain't free."  It takes effort and persistence, to walk away from the comfort of our addictions, the seduction of our pain.  We can stay in our misery, hoping to be saved, or we can check out our soul's invitation.  Maybe we'll "roll down the window and let the wind blow back [y]our hair" 

Welcome to the Blog for Set the Truth Free.  Within these pages will be random musings on the spiritual journey, the search for soul, the path to healing and "wholing" our psyche.

I welcome your comments and contributions.  Together may we find our way home