April Meditation on a Sage-covered Hillside

Interconnectedness makes everything more complicated.

Maybe we existed in tribal units,
    in villages and clans,
for thousands of years
for a reason.

Maybe it was what the human psyche,
the human capacity for experience, our human emotional competence, was capable of...
to have life and livelihood clearly defined, limited; with boundaries and borders drawn,
so we knew where we were, who we were.

The existence became our definition.

Now how do we self-define when we are told that boundaries and borders are confining, and that there are no limits - if one is self-actualized and living a fulfilling life?

So we interconnect.   A good thing.

We become over-whelmed though by the barrage of information and the collection of connections.  And in the rush to keep pace, to be connected, aware, informed, we find our life more complicated.
Is it more fulfilling?  Or just more filled?

I can't help but think of the experience of watching a movie and how it has changed in just my lifetime.

Childhood -
What a treat to go to the theater for a very special outing.  Or to relax in the rhythm of the week with NBC Saturday Night at the Movies in my family living room.  The week's fresh laundry, warm from the dryer, spread on my lap to be folded, enfolding me in its fresh comfort, while I stretched on the floor to watch the movie of the week.

Then VCR -
Great! I could choose the movie and decide the time to watch it.  Even watch films of the family, self-recorded.  But what about that darn blinking timer - 12:00 12:00 12:00?  So many buttons, pages of instructions and no TV repairman anymore to make house calls.   Oooo.
Then came the VCR built right into the little TV.  How handy.  Pop it in, there it is.  Even could record shows while I'm not watching...if I could only figure out the buttons.
See figure 8, page 15, Timed Recording.

And DVDs -
Cool. Smaller. Compact.  They take up a lot less drawer space.  But I still needed to keep the VCR since most of my movies are on VHS, including the precious, irreplaceable family ones.  Or I could get them transferred onto DVD; another step, another complication.  So the stack grows taller in the entertainment cabinet and the pile of remotes grows more complicated.  Good thing each component is a different brand so I can tell which gizmo operates which contraption.

And Now -
I can barely turn on the TV.  Sound bar? Xfinity? On Demand? Pay per View? HD? Trending? Favorites? 739 channels! And now I don't even know how to play a DVD through my HDTV because it takes three remotes and four commands to start a movie.

So it seems... The more interconnected the systems have become, the more complicated the process. And the more inadequate human competency appears.

So I sit here, in the sage-scented sunshine, listening to what some might call silence,
what to my ears is song.         And consider how simple life really can be.