"We have more to keep us busy than any generation before us."

Ah, well, it seems that way, doesn't it? And yet our lives are (in my opinion) rather empty compared to the lives of people in simpler societies....for one simple reason: instead of dealing directly with relating to other people in basic ways, we are relating with all our fancy gadgets. The computer. The TV. The cell phone. The ipod. The snow blower. The blackberry. The washer. The dryer. The car. The Osterizer. The whatever.... ;-)

We lead far more emotionally isolated lives than our ancestors did, because we are overwhelmed with technology and tucked away in our house or our apartment or our cubicle at work...interacting with a damn machine instead of a variety of other human beings.

Having been in Cuba and Trinidad and Mexico where people have far less technology and possessions, I can say that we are the ones living in poverty...but it's not material poverty. It's spiritual, social, and emotional poverty.

I'm generalizing, of course... ;-) I'm sure there are plenty of you just about to leap on your keyboard and tell me just how WRONG I am when it comes to you! Fine. ;-)

Well, I became addicted to using the Internet to keep my mind busy about 3 years ago, and where am I now? I have virtually exhausted the possibilities on the Internet. Yes. I know it sounds incredible, but I can barely find anything on the Internet any longer that stirs my interest, and which I haven't already seen and am done with.

We do not have more to keep us busy than any generation before us, SINSULL, it just seems that way. "Busy" isn't the point. The point is an actual level of real emotional engagement with life. Business is how many people cover up their lack OF emotional engagement, in fact. They have to keep moving, because if they were to stop and actually consider where they are, the emptiness of their lives would terrify them. That's why people get so antsy and stressed out when they have to wait for a minute at a traffic light. They're afraid of their own internal emptiness...and that brief forced wait at the light puts in right in front of them, and they can't stand it.