The Intersection of Humanity and Technology
You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but she'll always turn up again
An old friend recently commented, “I think you quit your corporate job because you have Block Island in your soul.” I think that’s right.
As a child, I was extremely blessed to spend summers on Block Island, a ten square mile island oasis off the coast of Rhode Island.
Days at the beach; swimming, body-surfing, floating in the salty ocean, along with many other friends and families who would also be there summer after summer. Outdoor laser tag, toughening our feet so we could walk the rocky paths without shoes, video games and cards when it rained. No AC and an outdoor shower. Lots of reading.
And my favorite, the fresh water pond miraculously existing amongst our cottages and full of turtles. I would spend hours each day at the edge of the pond, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone (I generally preferred being alone), catching turtles.
It was an exercise in extreme patience. A couple slices of bread judiciously pieced and thrown into the pond to lure turtles. They would pop their heads above water at a safe distance and observe. If they liked what they saw they would dive under and move in another ten feet. And so it went, until with enough skill and patience of the turtler, they would get close enough for me to swoop them up in a net.
A sudden noise or movement would send the turtles under water, swimming away for the rest of the day. Sometimes hours of work lost in an instant. Hence, my general preference for being alone.
I was deeply immersed in nature. Seeing, hearing, feeling, listening, smelling, calming. I was meditating before I knew what meditation was.
That was my childhood. That shaped me.
I think about the intersection of humanity and technology. Mankind is not separate from nature. As the great Alan Watts said,
We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.
Technology, and its “artificial” intelligence, divorces us from our ties to nature, from our mother. Something about screens does not quite feel as meaningful.
For our own good, we must find ways to reunite.
If you are feeling stressed or anxious these days, you are not alone, and to soothe your nervous system, please find ways to get into nature.
May we treat the Earth well.
May we treat the animals well.
May we treat each other well.
🙏
I help high-achievers slow down, simplify, unplug to get what they REALLY want in love, work, and life. Learn more at tylerhaling.com.
Great Post!