To thine own self be true

And so, as Frankl said, it all comes down to which possibilities do you want to activate today? And the choices to activate those possibilities. (And, I might add, the personal will to do so. The will to action.)

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In a nutshell, the main 3 things: (pondering/imagining) possibilities, personal choices (selection of possibilities), and will to action (physical actualization/creation of choices–talk is cheap, not enough–Nothing is quite as real as the things we’ve actually done/created.”

is that you, those closest to you, others you know, your lifestyle, your relative good health, institutions, services you take for granted, your screens and the Internet, countries, indeed the planet–will all be here tomorrow. We constantly experience change, chaos, non-structure, destruction, deconstruction, atrophy, and death. Some basic facts to ground whatever personal choices in 2015. All that we realistically have–for the time being–is our transitory presence and the choices we make for the day. Choices that are extremely important, and way more relevant than people typically, limitedly, ‘know’.

In the 1960s, the Western world was undergoing massive social change. A provocative 1970 book that dared to assess what was going down then and to look ahead was Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. Yesterday I had occasion to revisit this book, which I discovered the first time around in 1970 at university.

Toffler was right that:

-the pace of life, change, mobility, and increasing diverse choices would spiral out of control and that transience and a reduction in duration and permanence would become defining features of our then-future lifestyles and values.

-(with the exception of hoarders) the West had or would become a ‘throw-away society’. This goes well beyond things, to include people and relationships.

-marriages would become temporary and the nuclear Western family would continue to disappear. There would arise new forms of relationships and families including “homosexual daddies”, for instance–an example of the increased diversity he foresaw.

-rentalism would become extremely popular for all sorts of things and services.

-education would change greatly with revolt against authority, tradition, and the past as well as fewer agreements on common curriculum. Instead, there would be more focus on a fuzzy futurism no large numbers of people can agree on

-information would greatly increase and spiral out of control leading to information overload, decision overload, and future shock for those unable to adapt.

-with the availability of replacement or additional technological parts, people would become more cyborg-like, machine-like, sensibility-wise.

-because of human need for overstimulation, there would need to be more bombardment-of-the-senses types of experiences.

-numerous subcults would emerge to satisfy people’s diverse needs for belonging and identity.

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As Toffler pointed out, we are living in an era of continuous change with an emphasis on technology and making money. It’s obvious now that the ‘losers’ in this scenario have been families, communities, public safety, health care, quality education, and public institutions and services which once exemplified the best of Western civilization. We are clearly living in a highly-technologized post-civilization era with all the obsession with money, materialism, craziness, barbarism, and violence that this term implies.

As in Toffler’s day, the average Western person today can likely tell you 10 technological developments. But that person would likely be hard-pressed to list 10 ways in which their lives would change as a result. In short, the same disconnect between the same two very related important questions from 1970 would still reveal a similar naivete or ignorance about how future developments are likely to affect or change one’s own life, the lives of others, and society. The more things change….

As usual, the past remains far more instructive than anything current or a pipe-dreamishly-technology-as-the-be-all-end-all future. From the opening of Charles Dickens’ most dramatic, timeless novel, A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

beer bottle
on veranda
sunday morning
always comes

……..

(Garneau area on a weekend walk)

Finally answering
death’s good-night
your hair in white ringlets
like snow
on a true-daughter’s pillow.

No more peeling potatoes
in a kitchen of fears
custody-feuds
hidings and slop-pails.
No more great-grandchildren
to bounce on
Baba’s knee.

Always the forgotten member
forlorn in a corner or
watching the picture-box
wondering at the English words
amazed by Burbank colors.

Baba
a faded wedding-picture
yellowing the wall
expression of commitment
(I am his)
came to Canada
when she was pretty
had a figure.

Then
ten too many children
a homestead of hardships
her mouth twisted
unnaturally cruel by Time
spat phlegm
into a Kleenex.
Baba
dead at 87.

“It takes four seasons to know one year.”–Anonymous

“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”–Victor Hugo

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”–Albert Camus

“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.”–Pearl Buck

“It matters not how long you live, but how.”–Philip James Bailey

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”–Eden Phillipotts

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”–Henry David Thoreau

“Forever is composed of nows.”–Emily Dickinson

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”–Anonymous

“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads.”–Albert Camus

“Happiness is a direction, not a place.”–Syndey J. Harris

“With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.”–Lope de Vega

“Some people like to make a little garden out of life and walk down a path.”–Jean Anouilh

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”–Henri Matisse

“You cannot travel the path until you become the path itself.”–Buddha

“The art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”–Havelock Ellis

“The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key.”–Pearl Buck

“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. The heart withers if it does not answer another heart.”–Pearl Buck

“Freedom is the spine of love.”–Sophia Loren

“Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.”–W. Somerset Maugham

“Ecstasy is full, deep involvement in life.”–John Lovell

“Develop an interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music–the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.”–Henry Miller

“…from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web….we must pick out what is good for us where we find it.”–Pablo Picasso

Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, experienced on Christmas eve or Christmas Day. Dylan Thomas Reading was the first album Thomas recorded for the two women who founded Caedmon Records; this was the label’s first release in 1952. The special blue booklet of woodcut illustrations by Ellen Raskin (New Directions) was long a Christmas staple, too. Later came the excellent 1988 movie adaptation (Hen’s Tooth/Alliance) of the story. All are highly recommended reading, listening, and viewing.

“(but if you look long enough
eventually
you will be able to see me.)”
–Margaret Atwood, The Circle Game

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N.B./ Joni Mitchell’s song, “The Circle Game”, preceded this book.