It is quite obvious that the modern Western culture gives us immediate access, almost instantly, to whatever may seem of interest to each one of us. It is also obvious that our attention span is shrinking as fast as our capacity to absorb new information keeps building up.
I dare say this has a price: we don’t have the time to build all that knowledge into a solid subjective structure, an inner house, a solid place, full of surprises, hidden corners, basements and attics and secret passages.
The fleeting contact we establish with all the info we absorb creates in us the false illusion of knowledge.
Those of us who are old enough not to have been cyber kids, can tell the difference.
We are fascinated with everything that’s new and State of the Art technology, but we miss the kind of time we used to spend trying to figure out everything the world has to feeds us.
So we feel our inner self is getting stuffed with knowledge, but it’s not getting deeper, it’s getting thinner.
The Spanish writer Manuel Vincent says that people are afraid to seek refuge within themselves, because that inner construction is “shaky”. So it doesn’t makes us feel safe, but quite the contrary.
And that is a shame, because being able to seek refuge within ourselves is a fantastic relief against adversity.
Like those “cabins” we made under the bed, with blankets and a flashlight.
Or the wonderful tree houses, where we felt safe, masters of the fortress, and open to fantasy.
When we loose our innocence, we loose the safety those tree houses gave us.
“When we stop playing –says Vincent-, we remain unprotected, alone in the wilderness, far from the world of dreams, having to face real enemies”.
Full of hope, he points out that there are privileged human beings that are still capable, no matter what age they are, to build that tree house inside their soul and make themselves strong and invincible against adversity.
There are many ways to do that, as long as we build it strong and keep in there some strong feelings, some strong knowledge, and keep out aggression and barbarity and inhumanity.
And, as you might have guessed by now… let me tell you: Second Life is one hell of a tree house.
The one that made us feel so strong when we where kids, the one place we felt safe to dream in.
Lets play.
Lets take care of our tree house. It’s a chance to have that magic place when we are too grown up to go climbing real trees.
Covadonga Writer
I dare say this has a price: we don’t have the time to build all that knowledge into a solid subjective structure, an inner house, a solid place, full of surprises, hidden corners, basements and attics and secret passages.
The fleeting contact we establish with all the info we absorb creates in us the false illusion of knowledge.
Those of us who are old enough not to have been cyber kids, can tell the difference.
We are fascinated with everything that’s new and State of the Art technology, but we miss the kind of time we used to spend trying to figure out everything the world has to feeds us.
So we feel our inner self is getting stuffed with knowledge, but it’s not getting deeper, it’s getting thinner.
The Spanish writer Manuel Vincent says that people are afraid to seek refuge within themselves, because that inner construction is “shaky”. So it doesn’t makes us feel safe, but quite the contrary.
And that is a shame, because being able to seek refuge within ourselves is a fantastic relief against adversity.
Like those “cabins” we made under the bed, with blankets and a flashlight.
Or the wonderful tree houses, where we felt safe, masters of the fortress, and open to fantasy.When we loose our innocence, we loose the safety those tree houses gave us.
“When we stop playing –says Vincent-, we remain unprotected, alone in the wilderness, far from the world of dreams, having to face real enemies”.
Full of hope, he points out that there are privileged human beings that are still capable, no matter what age they are, to build that tree house inside their soul and make themselves strong and invincible against adversity.
There are many ways to do that, as long as we build it strong and keep in there some strong feelings, some strong knowledge, and keep out aggression and barbarity and inhumanity.
And, as you might have guessed by now… let me tell you: Second Life is one hell of a tree house.
The one that made us feel so strong when we where kids, the one place we felt safe to dream in.
Lets play.
Lets take care of our tree house. It’s a chance to have that magic place when we are too grown up to go climbing real trees.
Covadonga Writer
