THE FADING OF OUR HUMANITY

Mud?  No problem!!!

     I ran across a posting on Facebook recently about how some new clothing that the Military has invented, actually cleans itself.  (Check out the article here)  Supposedly it won't even get stained by pouring motor oil on it.  This miracle of modern military technology is apparently achieved by applying  chemicals to the fabric resulting in what the scientists are calling an  “Omniphobic coating.”  (Don't worry... it usually takes about 20 years for skin cancer to begin showing up)  They've even figured out how to keep them from getting stinky from your smelly arm pits by putting "Antimicrobial additives" into the coating (My always skeptical mind is telling me this means some kind of pesticide).  The headline of this article touts how this revolutionary new coating on our future"Oceania" uniforms, will somehow free us from drudgery because they will forever more... Be free of the horror of having to be laundered!!!   

     Besides the idea of going about our daily lives with chemical soup draped over our bodies, there's something else at work here.  Something almost sinister.  Something slowly robbing us of our humanity.  I read a story the other night on the new internet radio show that I'm hosting, (APN Radio - "They were Preppers"). This story (Taking a Magical Journey) tells of a trip that a young boy took with his parents, right around the year 1900... in of all things - A covered wagon!  In great detail, it describes the sights and sounds, and even smells of that experience.  

     It's a miracle of "Mysterious ways" to me how in my life there's often a convergence of experiences.  I'm blessed with being dragged along, blindly, and stupidly, to certain realizations.  I was working on my house the other day, and a small life and death struggle caught my eye.  A very large ant had gotten caught in a spider's web, by just the very tip of her abdomen.  While the Spider circled around, looking for a window of opportunity to strike, (The Spider was only about the size of the Ant) the Ant was able to spin around on her attached hiney always keeping her powerful pincers facing the  spider in a 360 degree dance of survival.  It was a marvelous natural spectacle to watch!  Now this was on that "Back side" of my home, where I hardly ever go, except to mow the grass once a week.  Had I not been working there at that time... Of all times... I would have missed this little microcosm, of Nature's wonder.  (The, Ant got away by the way).

My Cellphone got missed somehow in the pocket cleaning ritual this week, and unfortunately it went into the washing machine (Speaking of laundry).  No effort at "Blow drying", burying in rice, or leaving on the dash board could save it.  So I was without a phone for several days, while "Fedex" brought my new phone (It was insured).  I was amazed at how much simpler my life was without having a "Pocket Master" demanding my attention.

Clothes that wash themselves, rides in covered wagons, the life and death struggle of insects, and the "Horror" of no texting, all coming together within the space of a few days in my life.  "Mysterious ways" indeed!  The "Man Upstairs" usually  has to wack me over the head with a two by four several times, before a dim light bulb starts glowing in my brain.  

We Homo Sapiens spend an awful lot of our efforts attempting to construct a technological cocoon around ourselves.   As you prepare for an uncertain future... Are you thinking in terms of the stereotype that a television show would have you believe?  Are you letting go of the concept that you should be spending all your time trying to preserve the technological conveniences that you've become addicted to???  In the future, we may not have these things, but is it all that bad of a thing after all?  Maybe........ Just maybe, we may find that living without the  drapery of our technological mastery over nature, we can find a happier life enjoying the things we're missing.  Instead of zipping down the highway at warp speed, the future may force us to slow down to a horse's speed, (Or our own), but noticing so much more along the way.  Maybe, without our faces locked on that phone, fingers texting as fast as possible, we can take time to ponder a honey bee, gathering nectar in all its glory, or laugh at a couple of hens quarreling over a juicy grasshopper.  The effortless gliding of a hawk, as she sails the wind, The feeling you get when you hug a loved one who's been away for a few days.  These are the things we're missing in our modern world.  An "SHTF" world may re-introduce us to a happier life after all!