Which of these phrases appeals to you more? I’ve been thinking about both lately. For the past two nights (and again tonight) I’ve been visiting my local Best Buy store trying desperately to purchase a working external hard drive. Gotta preserve those baby photos against the inevitable computer crash. Trouble is, apparently they don’t sell one that actually works. The first one I tried had some sort of firmware issue--it began asking me for a password as soon as I plugged it in and no amount of over the phone technical assistance seemed to help. When the kid on the other end of the line says, “you should take it back to the store”, it’s probably best to stop wasting your time and just return it.
Which brings us to external hard drive #2. After exchanging #1, I take #2 out of the box to discover that the metal plug ports are offset behind the plastic exterior cover in such a way that you can’t even plug the thing in!!!! Lovely! So another trip is in order.
All of this is made urgent by the fact that our computer goes into some sort of coma every time it “goes to sleep.” When we go to wake it up it begins clicking and puts a big question mark on the screen. This is VERY frightening given that we have not backed things up due to the above mentioned problems (and procrastination). So far I’ve been able to get it to boot back up by an extended ritual of unplugging, re-plugging, dust blowing, and dancing around in a counter clockwise motion and holding my breath. But my luck may soon run out.
To top it off, the kid at the store last night, sold me the wrong kind of RAM. I promptly brought it home and attempted to install it, only to discover the error. I’m hoping they’ll take it back despite the package that had to be cut open with scissors. If not, I may actually lose my mind.
OK, so technology is not my forte. I think we’ve established that. That really isn’t why I’m telling you all of this. It has just got me ruminating on what things we rely on in our daily lives. It’s been a trial, even for these past couple of days to be without a working computer. There are bills that need to be paid, news stories read, shows watched on hulu, facebook updates to read, and blogs to be posted to, and all other sorts of imperative digital activity that must be upheld lest the world come to an end.
Last night at work, the power went out. Yes, we actually had rain, and a brief storm, at that. We had to close the library because after an hour the power had not come back on. There was no way to check books in or out, no internet, not much we could do. Without electricity we were powerless, so to speak (sorry). Ironically, I was hosting a presentation by a fellow who does a first-person act as John Muir---the irony being that Muir was someone who would not have been impeded in the least by the loss of electrical current and who always rejoiced in a good storm. But even the father of American Conservation was cut short by last night’s power outage.
We are dependent on so much that is beyond our control. All of us. Some of this is inescapable and endemic to the human condition--We don’t make the sun rise and the earth orbit-- but some of it is due to the choices we make. When I drive out to the farm I drive past subdivision after subdivision. Now, on one hand I can see why people would want a comfortable house. I'm no exception. On the other hand, I look at those homes and I think that living that way requires you to pay someone else for almost everything you need in order to live. Shelter equals mortgage. Food equals groceries. transportation equals car payment. Heat equals gas bill. and on and on. I wonder how much of that stuff a community could produce for itself. Notice I said a community. I wonder what it would mean if we traded our dependence on corporations for a dependence on our neighbors. People we looked in the eye every day. There are some things that I think the Amish get right. I, for one, would happily help a few neighbors build their houses in exchange for not having a mortgage.
People these days grouse and grouse about there not being any jobs. I could go on for a while on that subject, but no one wants to hear that...... nevertheless, let me offer this one single personal heresy---I’m not sure we have an unemployment problem so much as we have a consumer debt problem. I may be demonstrating my simple-mindedness, but it seems to me that people need jobs because they owe money. If you had a roof over your head, a big garden, and no debt, you might desire a job, but it wouldn’t be life or death if you couldn’t find someone to pay for your labor. Let me add in full disclosure, that I am very grateful for my job, because I owe money.
We are a comfortable society even in bad times. I don’t want to be ungrateful for that comfort, but I wonder about the legitimacy of what we call the American standard of living. If you take a long enough view of human history, such luxury begins to look abnormal to say the least. For a long time before the industrial revolution people fed, clothed, and sheltered themselves, perhaps not to our current standards, but that’s kind of my point--our current standards may not be entirely justifiable.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wishing for poverty and privation. I just wonder about that phrase “living independence.” I wonder what it might look like. What would it look like to live a life that isn’t held hostage by so much that is extraneous, wasteful, commercialized, extractive. I wonder what a life looks like that is shorn of the unnecessary and abundant with things that matter most. In my book these are community, family, skill, knowledge, creativity, laughter, security, love. Seems like there’s an elegant middle in there someplace. I haven't found it yet, that's for sure.
Best Buy here I come....
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