Words, Words, Words
7.9.06
I woke up this morning with a clipboard of thoughts to attend to and realized I am often pre-occupied. Career, family, friends, internal quests, external needs, chores all battle for my attention at various times during the day. Then I got to thinking about the word: pre-occupied, the idea that something else used to take up this space. To be pre-occupied, could mean to have been previously lived in. Who or what has lived here before and keeps begging my attention? Aside from the mundane requirements of living, themes keep re-surfacing, albeit presenting themselves in different formats.
So I ponder this idea of archetypes, the shadow, our imaginal ancestry and get into a discussion about the cool new Mac that has a camera built in for video communications. The idea of wanting to be seen while communicating with another person, how sometimes we dont', sometimes we do. Which prompted my old harrangue about how we miss the watering hole, the campfire etc, how environment seems to affect psychology in that so many people in modern society seem dis-affected (there's another word for you, not affected, not impacted, solitary). How with cell phones more people chat with their friends than actually see them. (A recent survey showed this to be true and accounting for the fact that with such busy lives people spend less time with friends but more with family.) This took us back to the cave and indigenous people and a whole conversation about how hard it is to be disaffected, a loner, an outcast in a harsh environment that requires close connections to others for survival. I realized that I have nothing invested in the fishmonger at Whole Foods, no need to check if he peed on the trout, because I know (or presume to) the chain of command in our modern food distribution system. I can venture out on my own without fear of mastodon stampedes or Attila the Hun pillagers. I can not think about where to find fresh water, because it is always (for now) there. I don't need to be invested in the people around me in the same we used to.
But of course, we need people and relations, so here we are in a culture that's creating all these new technologies to connect with each other through, IM'ing, blogs, cell phones, video-conferencing, frequent flier miles. But do we feel connected? I tend to see so many signs of phsyical disease because that's on my work radar, and read about all of our compulsions and obsessions as coping mechanisms for that chasm, the maw inside that seems impossible to fill, when your day is spent caught in traffic, working for "the man", speed eating, and charging our cards to the max. Of course, I could just ask this question of myself, how connected do I feel with the people I love and I realize how hard it truly is when everyone's got their competing responsibilities and myriad interests. It is easier to fire off an email then send a letter, to IM then make a phone call, to open a catalogue than sew a shirt, to microwave than slow roast, to peck your children on the cheek in passing than sit with them and really listen to their days.
So I wake up pre-occupied. So much to do every day and to accomplish in this short life. Who lived in this space before? Who goes there now? How shall I welcome you? How shall I honor you? What do you have to say? How well can I hear you? When I take down the "for rent" sign, who will move in?
I woke up this morning with a clipboard of thoughts to attend to and realized I am often pre-occupied. Career, family, friends, internal quests, external needs, chores all battle for my attention at various times during the day. Then I got to thinking about the word: pre-occupied, the idea that something else used to take up this space. To be pre-occupied, could mean to have been previously lived in. Who or what has lived here before and keeps begging my attention? Aside from the mundane requirements of living, themes keep re-surfacing, albeit presenting themselves in different formats.
So I ponder this idea of archetypes, the shadow, our imaginal ancestry and get into a discussion about the cool new Mac that has a camera built in for video communications. The idea of wanting to be seen while communicating with another person, how sometimes we dont', sometimes we do. Which prompted my old harrangue about how we miss the watering hole, the campfire etc, how environment seems to affect psychology in that so many people in modern society seem dis-affected (there's another word for you, not affected, not impacted, solitary). How with cell phones more people chat with their friends than actually see them. (A recent survey showed this to be true and accounting for the fact that with such busy lives people spend less time with friends but more with family.) This took us back to the cave and indigenous people and a whole conversation about how hard it is to be disaffected, a loner, an outcast in a harsh environment that requires close connections to others for survival. I realized that I have nothing invested in the fishmonger at Whole Foods, no need to check if he peed on the trout, because I know (or presume to) the chain of command in our modern food distribution system. I can venture out on my own without fear of mastodon stampedes or Attila the Hun pillagers. I can not think about where to find fresh water, because it is always (for now) there. I don't need to be invested in the people around me in the same we used to.
But of course, we need people and relations, so here we are in a culture that's creating all these new technologies to connect with each other through, IM'ing, blogs, cell phones, video-conferencing, frequent flier miles. But do we feel connected? I tend to see so many signs of phsyical disease because that's on my work radar, and read about all of our compulsions and obsessions as coping mechanisms for that chasm, the maw inside that seems impossible to fill, when your day is spent caught in traffic, working for "the man", speed eating, and charging our cards to the max. Of course, I could just ask this question of myself, how connected do I feel with the people I love and I realize how hard it truly is when everyone's got their competing responsibilities and myriad interests. It is easier to fire off an email then send a letter, to IM then make a phone call, to open a catalogue than sew a shirt, to microwave than slow roast, to peck your children on the cheek in passing than sit with them and really listen to their days.
So I wake up pre-occupied. So much to do every day and to accomplish in this short life. Who lived in this space before? Who goes there now? How shall I welcome you? How shall I honor you? What do you have to say? How well can I hear you? When I take down the "for rent" sign, who will move in?
posted by Barbery at 8:43 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home