From two sources. The first: My husband was replacing some kind of parts on the car that make the wheels turn. He was showing me what he had done. Now don’t get me wrong, I admire his skill in being able to do this work! But as I looked at the tangled mass of metal he was wrestling with and the greasy parts strewn all over our garage, and I thought of all the factories and mines and oil wells required to make such a contraption…. Suddenly, into my mind popped the image of a horse. A lovely golden brown, strong shouldered, warm blooded, horse.
Ever had a horse breathe in your ear? You can have a relationship with a horse. You can know a horse and he’ll know you. He will nicker when he sees you. A living breathing animal. Self contained, self replicating, and if not damaged too severely, self healing.
The second example was sitting here listening to my supervisor order supplies for our department. She had to use complex numbering systems, locate toll free numbers, order exotic chemicals, itty bitty parts, without which our machines won’t work. Vital fluids and containers and metal clips, plastic vials and hollow needles, NONE of which we could make ourselves. So we are at the mercy of the people who do. And we are at the mercy of our machines should they decide to act up.(Which they often do.)
The details that we have to manipulate and remember every day boggle the mind and frankly for me, from time to time, crush the spirit.
Besides the very obvious medical advances we are blessed with today, are our lives REALLY better than those who lived 100 years ago? And what price do we pay for being surrounded by so much complex STUFF?
(She asks while typing on a computer that she has only the vaguest of ideas how it works…)
Yes, I am aware of the incongruity of my situation.. .
But I still think about it.