We Expect Too Much of Ourselves

Referencing where I left off in the last posting:  when we started down the path of human primacy (actually, down the human-is-all-there-is path) one of the inadvertent effects has been that we expect too much of ourselves and of each other.  We've come to expect that humans can (and should) provide whatever is needed for humans.

Let's look at this particular error for a moment, as though it could stand alone under our scrutiny, without having to take every other error or our kind into account.  At the deepest level, our cultural mythology has told us that not only do humans represent the pinnacle of evolution on this planet, but that we, in all likelihood, represent the pinnacle of evolution in the universe.  I mean, come on, after all this time have you ever actually met an extraterrestrial being or seen irrefutable evidence on television that such really and truly do exist?  (I don't know the emoticon for sarcasm.)

But wait, there's more.  We're not really even sure that we as physical beings are the pinnacle of anything.  It's our minds, our thoughts, our ideas that represent this ultimatism.  The body, after all, seems to be the great limiter of our imaginations.  If only we didn't have to have one.  (Look deeply now.  It's not your own personal beliefs I'm calling into question here.  Listen for the cultural voice silently speaking inside your own head about all this.  Try to hear what that voice says about this.)

Our bodies, we know, are made up of the same stuff as the rest of the planet.  Even without science we believed this to be true.

Ah, but then there's our mind, our ideas and our ideals.  Oh, what we could be if only this earthy stuff didn't hold us back.  If only there really weren't any rules, any limitations, anything other than our ideas to be concerned about, only the stuff inside our heads.

So, let us spend all our nows looking only at the projection of our collective thoughts on screens of various sizes.  Let us only listen to the audio representations of these thoughts over speakers great and small.  Let us only taste the tastes manufactured by us, the smells we've created, and feel only that which we've created as comfort.  In our eyes.  In our ears. On our tongues.  In our noses.  On our skin.

Our technology has become the realest expression of this human-centered mind.  We now only interact, by and large, if not exclusively, with ourselves, with each other, and with our creations.  We have, in that very real sense, become our technology.  You've heard or made these comments:  I need a memory upgrade.  I wish I could reboot myself.  I need to download my/your brain.  And the beat goes on.

Go outside now (or soon, very soon).

Listen around.

Smell around.

Feel around.

Taste around.

Look around.

Allow yourself to notice that which is not human or human-related.

It's there, even in the most densely populated and built-up part of a large city:  growing in the cracks of the pavement, drifting in the air between the human-produced smells and tastes, underneath, above and between the human-made sounds, close-up and beyond.

Allow the relationship that already is with all these things be felt and known by you.