Things Change

I used to carry CDs to work in a big black binder, maybe 25 or so. Before that, I guess I had a plastic rack full of cassettes I'd leave in the car, ever careful not to let them melt in the sun. I'd use my finger or a pencil to wind the the tape back into the cassette after the player yanked it out. I had vinyl records and 8-track tapes, each with their own dilemma - scratches and dust, or tapes eaten by hungry stereos - things we don't have to deal with today.

Today's electronic world, a world so wired almost silly to even say the word "electronic." It's not needed, it's a given. Today I carry my entire music collection in a wallet-sized gizmo, about 4,000 songs worth.

Friends, are they real or just the Facebook-Twitter kind?

I used to drive about 15 miles to work and some days it took almost two hours. Before that I took the train, listened to a CD or a cassette and kept my eyes on the floor. Good to drive a car now, no longer a sardine in a traveling can. I can blast my music and put the windows down. I leave when I'm ready, not when the train stops. I park in a lot that's part of the property, there's no fee. I can listen to CDs, satellite radio or plug in my iPod.

I have the world at my fingertips at any given moment, on the computer or my Blackberry. I am in touch, in the know. I am pulling info, spitting it out, feeding my brain. Constantly learning, adjusting, twisting, wriggling around in the ethos of our information revolution spasming into the air, onto the ground, across the country, around the globe. I am plugged in, tuned up, out, in, sideways.

There is information literally going in one ear and out the other, eyes darting to and fro, fingers can barely keep up. Sometimes my elbow gets sore, sometimes my back hurts, maybe not from running, but maybe from sitting in front of the computer or the TV.

Yes we still have the TV, but now in gi-grande flat-screen skyscraper definition bursting your eyes. So real you could touch it, smell it, swim in it, eat it up. It pulsates your brain in super-duper surround aural asphyxiation, beating and burning out the speakers, more and more pouring and pumping into your head. Keep it coming, I need more. I can't get enough.

I know immediately when this one killed that one, and this one swindled the one on the other side of town and then lied to the police. The one cheated then got caught with drugs. Which one blew up that one, who tortured the children when, where and for how long. Who's got an axe to grind, nevermind I'll grind it in your skull on reality TV for the world to see.

I can see it happen live. See it happen when thousands of people screamed in an instant then doused in silence in a burning ball of fire and rage.

Rage at the U.S., rage at this, rage at that and rage at what we allegedly did to them. Rage at their mothers, rage at their fathers. Rage at no idea what for. So much rage, and enough to spread to others like a disease, eating them up, killing their insides, killing their sympathy, killing their reason. Facts twisted up, burning and spewing into a fire ball. And have their repeated acts of rage given them freedom, did it change them, did it change the world? Are they addicted to the rage now, and cannot stop? Can they stop? Can we stop them? Can we live together, can we change?

Change is one of the hardest things we humans can do. It takes great effort, change comes on the brink - the brink of desperation, sanity, pain, loss, grief and maybe the need to change itself. You have no choice, change or go under. Change or die, evolution, it's how we survive, adapt. Sink or swim, evolve or become extinct. As one movie aptly put it, it's time to "Nut up or shut up."

Maybe for some it's easy to feel down looking out over "a world on fire."

I gotta glass half full, and a passport to the moon. I'm gonna fill 'er up to the rim and let 'er spill over the top, and drink it all in. Who's with me? Who's ready to begin?

Begin what? Living. Breathing, taking in a sunset, with your eyes, ears, nose and toes... ah, Man Gets Sand Between Toes, now there's a news story I can digg.

Don't tune it out, don't forget. Lean back, take a breath, and [it's your turn now]...

U2 - "Where The Streets Have No Name"

- Salud!