I woke up this morning after having read an interesting short story (last night) from the New Yorker that my brother had sent me. Then a painfully simple and yet seemingly important idea dawned on me as I felt the desire to check me email. (My desire to check my email as I wake up was one of the motivating factors of this idea).
The idea is painfully simple and probably just as painfully unoriginal. Originality, however, seems to have lost its value nowadays as writers repeat the same ideas over and over again.
Artifice is collecting everywhere. It is overwhelming.
And yet I do not know if I should disclose my idea here. Perhaps it is just too simple. It is about humanity's great struggle. It is about not letting artifice command your life.
What happened to the days when one would wake up just go outside and walk around and explore? Now it seems that a cell phone or a camera or a computer comes between you and everything else in the world. But is it technology's fault or simply our own failing to realize what is missing....
My first couple of weeks here in this place have left an interesting impression. There have been moments of peace; of beautiful green nature that surround me and relative quietude. But more often there is something manic about it all - there is no end to the human expansion, the human syndromes that exist here. Urbanity.
It's the challenge and I will take it. It will be an interesting excursion. To live life unfettered by an excess of artifice. Call me strange if you will, but too many books, movies, newspapers, magazines, paintings, video games, manga, too much internet - it's not healthy for us; it contributes to much narrowing of the mind even if it may have the illusion of expansion. What is truly lost in it all? Direct experience. The ability to feel what is really happening around us and to know what is truly important. I believe our obsessions with artifice have contributed to our lack of participation in politics and democracy. It is a dangerous time my friends; what will become of us?
Sincerely, Ted
