Re-boot, restart, pop up and move on.

I used to get caught up in political arguments, I used to think that my opinion was worth something, I used to think that I knew how everything was and why, now I realise that the longer I live the less I know.

I've never really thought about evolution in the right way, I've read quite a bit about evolution of earth and us (the cancer that threatens it) , but I've always read in a way that made me think that 'evolution' was a thing of the past- something that had 'happened' . I have now come to realise that evolution is still going on, it never stops, not only with the earth (changing climate -not all mans doing) but also our own human evolution.
We look at 'evolution' as if it will always be a positive outcome, but will it ? We humans seem to be changing at a rate the is too fast for our brains to adapt to, fast becoming Homo Digitalis and 'cross breeding' Homo Consumentis.
The phenomena of 'burn outs' seems to prove this very point- we chase around hunting happiness through more and more gadgets and other playthings hoping that they will enhance our lives, all the while pushing ourselves to the limits to get the latest hype, the latest trend get more 'likes' hits,clicks and other narcissistic enhancers. not only are we under pressure to perform at work ,more and more we are peer pressured into being an active social media 'personality'.

The pressure we put ourselves under is horrendous and we pass that on (aware or not) to our children and those around us. We seem to be more interested in how our politicians perform in TV entertainment programmes than we judge their policies. Politics has become just another arm of the entertainment industry. We are all fast becoming overworked overtired children who need distraction and entertainment. When confronted with the difficulties our politics and lifestyle creates, we turn to the politicians with the most simple solutions. What we call the 'populists' are more popular than ever, their 'sound byte' solutions tell us that 'all will be well' as long that we accept less privacy and more law and order, things we seem to care less about as long as we are left to play with our gadgets,  apps and games.
Economic pressures leave us burnt out and tired, 'no time to think' should be the new T-shirt, the time we have is dedicated to distraction, and so we post photos of our food and our cats and our children on-line to send the message that all is well with us. Meanwhile the very distractions we use to relieve our tense way of life gives us other pressures to live up to.

We desperately need a time out, to remember where we came from and what (who) we are, we need to reconnect with the real us, reconnect with the things around us that really matter and that are part of our earthly inheritance. We need to slow down, to talk and to realise that human happiness is often found not in things but in 'thinks', it's found in humanness.

Let's get the session underway..... Good morning ,my name is Nigel and I'm a Homo Sapien.

Being social without media.

I often think of the way we are evolving. One of the things that makes me sit up and stare, is the way we (don't) interact. Last weekend I was in Utrecht for the Comedy festival, a nice Town, the typical Dutch streets. There is something about being in another town that makes a person notice more than when walking the streets of their own neighborhood, and so it was that I noticed the interaction on the busy square where I sat to have lunch at a Café.
I was sat at a table, alone, waiting for my toasted sandwich and coffee to be served, looking around I noticed how many people were totally unaware of their surroundings or other people.
There were a few other tables like mine where one person was sat but four people could easily sit , Saturday afternoons are busy and there were people looking for places to sit, a few shed glances toward the tables where only one person was sat, but neither they or the person at the table talked or asked the question about whether they would like to share a table.
I saw three older ladies,  it turned out they were sisters, looking around so I waved and pointed at the empty three seats. They were so overjoyed at being able to sit , we laughed and joked about stuff for about 30 mins, they were from Friesland and were in town to watch 'Holiday on Ice' I joked that it's usually the other way around in Holland- with people going for a holiday on ice in Friesland.
A great meeting, good stories about their family and Friesland, we laughed and our ways parted. I even had three minutes of good comedy material out of it (....).
But what I'm trying to say is this, we seem to have lost the way about how we treat each other and how we interact.
We spend a lot of time on social media all day with people we are not with, some even with people they don't know, yet people who are around us we are hardly aware of. I find that strange.
We criticize politicians and we rant on social media about 'the way of the world' and then it springs to my mind- that old saying somebody very wise once said. 'Be the change you want to see' - and that is why I asked the ladies to join me at the table.
We can criticize society and politicians till the cows come home, but what do we do ourselves to make the world around us more bearable?