What Was Once Known Is Forgotten
There are days I despair of modern culture.
Back when we handwrote letters, I wrote virtual mini-books to friends. They were full of drawings, poems, songs, calligraphy, comments, musings, etc. At least two of you on my flist REMEMBER those days.
Then we had computers that could push out word processing at a fabulous rate. The letters were less colourful and somewhat shorter, but they were no less heartfelt.
Comes email and we all started joining listservs and writing LONG commentaries back and forth all the time.
However...now we blog and we rarely exchange any emails longer than a page. HIGHLY unusual given the past behaviour.
You realise, of course, you are not actually SEEING this. You are thinking about impressions that are being transported to your brain and you perceive what I'm writing as words on a computer screen. But you are not "seeing" my words. We are not "talking".
Honestly, we're hardly communicating. That makes me very sad, because I really LOVE talking to people. One of my favourite things is to just TALK TO A FRIEND FOR HOURS. That means sitting and talking, either face-to-face or on a telephone, discussing everything from what's important to each of us to BPAL and costumed play. Philosophy, art, culture, ethnic beliefs and attitudes, etc...all these were grist for a very creative mill that I tend to get to missing.
I still read like a daemon and I fill my mind with things that come out in my writing and in my conversations with people...but even those conversations are less and less. It's not that I'm unfriendly, but that WE AS A CULTURE are now so distracted and have so much input coming at us all at once that we have no real concentration for the words of a beloved friend. I have friends who have the television blaring in the background 24/7 so that any conversation is punctuated with commentary on the commercials or blank spaces where the people in the room all fade out and gaze at the Glowing God of the Banal over in the corner.
There was a day that the SILENCES in a conversation were as meaningful as the WORDS. I think that's STILL TRUE, but most of us aren't hearing those silences or being internally prompted to interpret them. Sometimes, when a person is telling you how they feel, it's the NON-VERBAL communication that really tells the story. A true friend 'reads' that communication and UNDERSTANDS.
I'm not criticising anyone in here; don't think that. But I wonder how much more wounded some of you are than I'm 'seeing', since we're only talking on AIM, or a chat room, or in staccato emails. Or did I miss something I needed to receive from you because we were trying to stay 'on theme' in a chat or group or party? Could I be helping someone who is reading this post, but I was too rushed, too distracted, too multi-tasked to notice?
Our souls are very precious and I fear they splinter before the tyranny of the Visual.
I mean to be watching more purposefully, because I think I have beggared my own soul in all those moments I was not paying closer attention to YOU.
Love you,
Nechtan
OT/P.S.: Did one of you ask me to be invited to a YahooGroup for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Because the moderator contacted me to tell me "someone" wanted me to participate, but I'd really like to be sure it's a FRIEND and not, say, ex-SigOth or something.
Back when we handwrote letters, I wrote virtual mini-books to friends. They were full of drawings, poems, songs, calligraphy, comments, musings, etc. At least two of you on my flist REMEMBER those days.
Then we had computers that could push out word processing at a fabulous rate. The letters were less colourful and somewhat shorter, but they were no less heartfelt.
Comes email and we all started joining listservs and writing LONG commentaries back and forth all the time.
However...now we blog and we rarely exchange any emails longer than a page. HIGHLY unusual given the past behaviour.
You realise, of course, you are not actually SEEING this. You are thinking about impressions that are being transported to your brain and you perceive what I'm writing as words on a computer screen. But you are not "seeing" my words. We are not "talking".
Honestly, we're hardly communicating. That makes me very sad, because I really LOVE talking to people. One of my favourite things is to just TALK TO A FRIEND FOR HOURS. That means sitting and talking, either face-to-face or on a telephone, discussing everything from what's important to each of us to BPAL and costumed play. Philosophy, art, culture, ethnic beliefs and attitudes, etc...all these were grist for a very creative mill that I tend to get to missing.
I still read like a daemon and I fill my mind with things that come out in my writing and in my conversations with people...but even those conversations are less and less. It's not that I'm unfriendly, but that WE AS A CULTURE are now so distracted and have so much input coming at us all at once that we have no real concentration for the words of a beloved friend. I have friends who have the television blaring in the background 24/7 so that any conversation is punctuated with commentary on the commercials or blank spaces where the people in the room all fade out and gaze at the Glowing God of the Banal over in the corner.
There was a day that the SILENCES in a conversation were as meaningful as the WORDS. I think that's STILL TRUE, but most of us aren't hearing those silences or being internally prompted to interpret them. Sometimes, when a person is telling you how they feel, it's the NON-VERBAL communication that really tells the story. A true friend 'reads' that communication and UNDERSTANDS.
I'm not criticising anyone in here; don't think that. But I wonder how much more wounded some of you are than I'm 'seeing', since we're only talking on AIM, or a chat room, or in staccato emails. Or did I miss something I needed to receive from you because we were trying to stay 'on theme' in a chat or group or party? Could I be helping someone who is reading this post, but I was too rushed, too distracted, too multi-tasked to notice?
Our souls are very precious and I fear they splinter before the tyranny of the Visual.
I mean to be watching more purposefully, because I think I have beggared my own soul in all those moments I was not paying closer attention to YOU.
Love you,
Nechtan
OT/P.S.: Did one of you ask me to be invited to a YahooGroup for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Because the moderator contacted me to tell me "someone" wanted me to participate, but I'd really like to be sure it's a FRIEND and not, say, ex-SigOth or something.