Issue #2 - Airport
Currently sitting in the airport wearing five layers of clothing in humid Saint Louis. Really, its not so bad. Criminal amounts of air conditioning is occurring to make nature almost irrelevant. As I look around, and at myself, I see nearly everyone around using some sort of technology: to my left is a middle-aged woman scrunching her face with AR filters, in front of me is a girl mindlessly snacking and watching Netflix. I really truly feel that technology is something that can improve the lives of others, and their productivity, but it seems so difficult to enhance these traits. Perhaps some are improved, but in many cases, the unintended "side-effects" of technology are amplified to such a degree that they overtake the originally intended purpose. My language students last year would write "Brb", "Lol", and "l8r" unironically in their papers. They didn't even realize what they were doing until I pointed it out. Who can blame them? We speak as we are, just each sector of a city an be viewed as the logical extension of man, language and technology are constantly reflecting and mirroring our personhood.
I ended up driving myself in two hours of peaceful silence. I was a bit tired we left the house at 6:30am, and I slept at 1:30am the night before. I was up late working on some designs with Ziyad, and finalizing some recording with Nephi. We shall see, but there's a decent chance that today is my final day really living in the United States. Which is interesting! Of course, a radical shift in my perception. I have traveled so much this year, and I feel bettered by it. It's sufficiently infrequent such that I have enough time to reflect and digest each experience. I am looking forward to return to Spain with a wiser point of view. I feel better and happy about it.
I don't really know what I was thinking about I drove to the airport. My friends were all asleep as strewn across each other, so I didn't dare speak, play radio, or turn too hard. This type of time is important: locking in and reflecting without attachment or self-consciousness (of course, I'm attaching now, but don't mistake the menu for the dinner). I think this type of time is going to become more and more important as the attention economy continues to grow. I wish to be continually production oriented, rather than consumption oriented, mindful, rather than passive, and energetic, rather than lethargic or nihilistic. I feel happier when I feel I'm working on productive work - I feel as though I am sharing in God's grace as a creator when I create myself.
I completed my homework in the airport too using my personal hotspot. I'm plugged into 2 (two?!) outlets right now... what a hog! I'm thinking to myself: can I realistically do this forever? I do want to make my money off a laptop, but I have some internal blockade. Somehow, the propaganda surrounding an office gets to me. I'm going to keep doing what I can...
I'm currently reading Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, from Reggie James' FREE-GAME PT2. that I talked about in the previous article. The book was on my list for a while but I'm happy to have gotten to it. I'm going to continue working, reading, with strong love in my heart.