Pogue,

Good Morning.

I think we both would agree that the world is changing and doing so at a pace. Most change is part of an evolution, all be it ever quickening, but occasionally we get side swiped as with the pandemic. There are things that we just don’t see coming. But which ever way it comes about, as said, the world is changing.

Here I am on a Monday morning wondering where the world is headed and what it’s destined to look like in the not too distant future? If we only take into consideration the variables that we are aware of we can see many possible futures. Climate change demands we take action to alter our current future. Technology moves forward at an unbelievable pace turning sci-fi’s fantasies into tomorrows realities. Everyday we are watched, more than at any time in history with surveillance technology getting ever cleaver. Our telephone conversations may be listened to without us knowing, our emails can be read.

Just think for a moment. If we wish to live the “normal life” we have to offer up our privacy to do so. You just can’t do the things that “normal” people do and not surrender your email address, your phone number, download this app, accept this cookie from that online shopping opportunity which will then track your shopping habits amongst other things.

Pogue, do you have any idea where the new normal came from?

May I suggest it originated with governments seeking control of it’s citizens, with big business seeking to maximise profits, with tech companies wanting both control and profit? And like the proverbial lemmings rushing towards the cliff’s edge people have accepted all because it has been sold as “must have” and, at the risk of repeating myself, “normal”. And I’m realising “must have” trumps all.

Strangely I find myself with a mild desire for simplicity. And this is not easy because having eaten of the tree of advancement, having been offered 100+ channels by my Smart televisions, called music I never owned into my room and being able to control my world from a device a little larger than a chocolate bar, why would I want to step away?

The thing is, by stepping away I can take control of the world I’ve known and am now loosing. I can choose to not be distracted, not live to be entertained, and, rather, seek to find peace in myself. To learn once more the pleasure of silence and contemplation where I provide the stimulus I think I need. I can once more lose myself in the natural world with all its wonders that are now passing so many by. Have you seen the autumn leaves in their myriad shades of gold, yellow and brown? An artists aspiration. And have you smelled the damp air tinged with the scent of log fires burning? Pleasures all my devices cannot provide. Pogue, there’s a world around us we are in danger of loosing to digital reproductions.

There will no doubt come a day when a device will be able to convince me I am smelling damp leaves, winter fires or anyone of another thousands delighting aromas. Then where will I be? We’re talking Matrix stuff now. On that day we will no longer need to dress against the cold or clean muddy boots on our return. Will we be better off?

But for now, for me, I think I will choose to put aside technology and take time to walk in the country without a phone in my pocket. To sit and embrace what the Universe has provided and continues to provide. Call me old school but I think my world is better and It is “my” world, not the new “normal” served up by a device.

Yours, being a bit of a Luddite.

Wic.