COVER -> RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT
LORD OF THE DANCE - As far as being a person with a "virtual" life goes, I'd say I have defined the rule for the last five years. I find myself surprised when people *don't* know what is going on with me from finding it out on the Web. I know more people here in online space than I do offline, and online is also where I earn my (meagre) living. All of these factors lead me to the conclusion that I live at arm's length from what most people would consider "normal" life.
Here's the equation:
Things most people consider part of "normal," everyday life include:
- Cars and commuting. Traffic signals, street names and directions, parking tickets, complaints about other drivers, the weather conditions and how they will affect the drive, traffic accidents.
- Working surrounded by other people and, thus, dealing with those people's gossip, quirks, obsessions, life issues.
- Getting home late and then beginning their private lives.
- Obsessing about the price(s) of various commodities like clothes, appliances, "toys," automobile parts, gasoline and knowing where to buy such things. Shopping as a major part of existence.
- Obligatory social and cultural events attendant to working and living in a job-related or (diminished) social community.
In contrast, my "normal" everyday life has practically NONE of those issues. They don't come up and haven't for years now.
Here's a list that is representative of my everyday concerns:
- Weather conditions as they affect walking to the local store or laundry. Only.
- Determining how long I shall remain online to produce any work I have planned. Deciding whether (based on if I plan to wear my bathrobe all day or need to dress in order to run an errand) I shall dress at all. Avoiding the temptation to just play the newest computer game demo I have loaded.
- Anxieties about when the publisher or publishers of the moment will have processed my invoices and "snail mailed" me my pay. Wondering when the snail mail will be delivered on that given day.
- Wondering if and when I should buy jeans that don't need patching/when I'll get it together to patch the jeans I've owned for so long. Trying to decide whether to have food delivered or if I should attempt to cook something, some portion of which I'll end up throwing out after it's been in the 'fridge for two weeks.
- Deciding whether to answer the telephone or wait to listen to the VoiceMail later if it's "important."
Most of the "conversations" I carry on every day take place on keypads. It's not unusual during my "normal" day to ask for a re-write from someone in Prague, check on how a friend in Singapore is doing, trade a joke with a fellow columnist in Tampa Bay, Florida, and send birthday greetings to someone in Belgrade. One friend in California commented this week that he had figured out my international cronies knew more about what was going on with me day-to-day than he did because we'd been playing telephone-tag for a month now.
All this considered, I accept that I live in a very rarefied space...
BEING CONNECTED
Rarefied, yes, but it is not an isolated space -- at least not intellectually. Fact is, some days I have more people to "talk" to than I have time to adequately process. If I'm on deadline to deliver an article, for example, I might not respond as adequately or fulsomely as I might have otherwise. I am probably "talking" to more people on any given day than most people who work in a cube farm.Nonetheless, I have to accept that this is not-at-all how "normal" people live in these United States.
"Normal" people know everything about popular culture, for example, and almost nothing about international issues or even the news of the day in their own state. You bring up economic issues -- local, national or international -- and they suffer MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over.)
They immediately recognize the context and humor of the exclamation "Whaaa-sup!" but could not name the current President of Serbia or the new Secretary of the Interior in the United States if their lives depended upon it. (Dr. Vojislav Kostunica and Gale Norton, respectively. But I'm sure Jay Leno knew that.)
 |
The counter-argument, I recognize, is that humans are social animals.
But I cannot help but think, though not often say, that this very sociality most people rush toward leads to a diminution, a dumbing down, of their higher and better critical judgments.The evidence seems rampant from this chair.
It comes down to the issue of what we each and personally define as "success."
Most Americans I encounter describe success as money: what do you own and what is your net worth. That's normal. But I would prefer to define success based on what contribution you make to the betterment of your society and humanity. That's abnormal.
Lord of the Dance of The Abnormal.
SPIRITUALITY
Most of us have no further to look than the cheapened definition of our spiritual life (the phrase "faith-based" comes to mind) than to see how commodification has displaced substance.
When I hear about a political initiative to restore the spirituality of America, using religious institutions as Poverty Pimps, I almost gag.
The very essence of enriching the spirit, in my view, is an appreciation of the value of quiet, solitary contemplation.
You cannot hear the voice of the spirit or the soul in the middle of a cacophony of competing --- and, nowadays --- commercial exhortations, no more than you can hear your own thoughts at the center of a cocktail party!
While religious rituals are social activities meant to build a community, the relationship between man and God (or whatever higher Providence you accept) is a private, isolated, individual matter. The most correct definition of morality is the relationship between the individual and the Higher Order. That said, it is repugnant to me that we should politicize --- and thus commodify --- what we would call moral inclinations and behavior.
When spiritual practices and spiritual issues become part of the discourse of the polity, they are immediately cheapened. They lose all value for the soul.
Let me bring it home: a life conducted at arm's length from the "madding" noise of the crowd might not be abnormal at all. Perhaps it is the most sane response to living in an insane world...
This week's Poll: Is your Work a definition of You?
WEB SITE PICK OF THE DAY: G21 Alumnus RON MORGAN is on the Executive Board of Bastard Nation, an organization committed to the rights of adoptees. They are featured in this month's Rolling Stone magazine in the first of a most excellent two-part series. You can check it out on the Web here. Worth your time!
