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a note for the new year
Tail spinning from the threshold of this
year into the second decade of our new century feels a bit like a cut-away,
free fall scene in the middle of some action thriller. Ten years. It's
mind-blowing how much has transpired and how quickly it has passed.
And I feel the acceleration of time like everyone I know. A part of that
perception is simply how we gather and assess our memories as we get older.
But I also feel that time itself is changing. Or rather, our relationship to
it is expanding so that we are able to do more than before in a given space
of time, collectively and individually. We're increasingly able to stretch
it like a big band of elastic, and when we snap it back we are able to see
all these things we fit into this condensed space. Its exhilarating and
exhausting.
In the last ten years just with communications technologies alone we have
developed new and different relationships with the people we know. And we
now have more relationships with people we have never and will never meet
than we ever did before. The borders, boundaries and etiquette for this new
territory change daily. Our communication devices are our lifelines to our
virtual realities. I do sometimes find myself confused by the way it all
plays out. I still get thrown when I encounter someone having a very loud,
animated conversation with seemingly no one, only to see they are wired into
a phone.
As more of our human interactions get funneled thru some type of
technological filter, I think it's important to remember to consciously
connect with people in our physical presence. To look each other in the eye,
to acknowledge their presence. To carry the awareness that connecting with
another human is a sacred and irreplaceable act. It is a grace.
As we continue to stretch the elastic band and discover access to places
previously unimaginable on the wings of all our new technologies, grab
somebody's hand for this slow motion free fall. Wherever the next decade
lands us will ultimately be defined by the grace of our humanity. Peace & Light,
Anne Harris
www.anneharris.com |