Michael Sauers
March 19, 2024
Today, I went to the Carola Sauers Children’s Library to do a storytelling. It is located at the Dimmick Memorial Library in Jim Thorpe, PA. The Library is an architectural gem located in the historic district. While waiting for my audience to arrive, I engaged in a conversation with a Mom. She told me that her child’s school library had been closed. I was dismayed to learn this but it focused my mind on how life has changed and not for the better.
It seems to me that we do not ask for many changes. They are foisted on us. We begrudgingly comply, not sure if the changes will be good for our families. Driven by commercial interests they are touted as necessary, innovative and vital to our progress as a civilization. I’m not convinced.
One example is the never ending news/pseudo information cycle that inundates us with shallow, propagandized messages about everything. It is overwhelming and abusive. Our brains are becoming mush. TURN IT OFF. Listen selectively. Start reading a variety of news sources. Vigorously support your local library and newspaper. Go to local meetings. Talk to neighbors.
Another is the market generated obsession with smart phones/computers. Park your so called smart phone. That’s right. Leave it at home, in the car, in your bag, etc. Go back to interpreting the world with your own intelligence. Your smart phone dumbs you down. Use it as a tool on your own terms. Consider getting a LAND LINE. Consider reading a map.
Now, reading is not for everyone but we have become a nation that does not read, especially in depth reading. We have become intellectually lazy as we allow “others” and “experts” to tell us what is what. Not reading is akin to being out of shape. Start exercising your cerebral matter. You will not be sorry.
STOP using PLASTICS. This is a nasty example of something that was foisted on us by oil and gas interests. It is like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. It pollutes. It is everywhere; air, water, soil, food, medicine, etc. It is in mother’s milk. Now, this is a crime and the industries (CEO’s Boards of Directors) should be prosecuted.
Technologies like cell phones and computers have spawned depersonalized people. We don’t talk to each other. We text. We have lost the art of conversation. We email. People sit, stand, drive and walk around staring at their smart phones. We have a difficult time with eye to eye communication. YIKES! This is fodder for a conspiracy theory.
Resist the FANaticism of sports. It is market derived and truly mind numbing. It is all about money. Sports divert our attention away from important matters to matters that are unimportant to our progress as a culture/civilization. They are opium for the masses who cannot handle the truth. Sad but true.
Engage with, appreciate and protect the natural world. Remember that you are part of it. You are as ugly as any predator that roams in the wild. We are speciesists. We kill everything including our own. This must be stopped or we are doomed.
Still thinking!