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A Place of Comfort
I’d like to share something with you from the article How to Deal with A.I. Grief written by NYU professor Suzy Welch. She wrote the following:
Evolutionary psychologists have been telling us for years that we don’t live in the world our brains were designed for. Research suggests that people function optimally in communities of around 60 to 100 — roughly the size of the first tribes on the African plains. That’s about all the input and output we can take, in terms of talking, listening, nurturing, managing, predicting and leading. Think about the number of images, ideas, requests, demands, feelings and noise poured into your head daily. It’s not 60; it’s probably closer to a multiple of 100.
I think she’s wrong. The amount of images/ideas/requests/opinions/ feelings/noise that is poured into us is way more than the number she suggested. Just think about the number of bumper stickers, billboards, and print advertisements you’ve seen today. And that’s barely scratching the surface.
A NY Times article from 2009 stated the following:
The average American consumes about 34 gigabytes of data and information each day; an increase of about 350% since 1980; consisting of 100,000 words, both in print and on the Web as well as those heard on television and the radio; and most of these experiences happen simultaneously, like talking on the phone while checking email while watching TV. Overall, information consumption is increasing 6% a year.
A 6% increase over a 14-year period means that we are now daily consuming 76 gigabytes of data! Professor Welch wrote, “Technology will change the world in ways that take us even further away from our brain’s design. No wonder life feels so overwhelming.”
Humans have been through a period like this before. The first Information Age was in the 7th century. The rise of technology, industry, education and a shared economic system made it so that people in that era were getting burned out by the rapid pace of society. The asceticism movement provided an answer to those who wanted to unplug from a rapidly evolving world. This movement can be traced through all the major world religions from the 7th to the 9th century. In our Christian tradition, we see the rise of monasteries during that time period; but, we were not the only ones doing it and, to be frank, it wasn’t even our tradition – it was an ancient Jewish ascetic practice from around the 3rd century BC that John the Baptist (and probably Jesus) participated in during the 1st century AD.
There are two basic forms of asceticism – natural and unnatural. Natural asceticism is reducing one’s life to simple clothing, a simple diet, and getting rid of stresses and distractions. Unnatural asceticism is punishing one’s own body to the extreme which includes sleeping on a bed of nails.
I am not advocating asceticism. My life, my diet, my clothing choices are not simple nor am I taking steps to make them simple. But, I know the importance of having a date night, of going out on the boat, singing along to music, floating on the pool, taking a bike ride and fishing. It’s a simple way of turning off the firehose of data and information and just being.
Here is where All Angels fits into this. Professor Welch recommends to her students that they find a small community that offers the “natural peace” the world doesn’t; a church, a club, a volunteer organization. These communities are not the cure for what ails us but a comfort and treatment. There is no way All Angels can stop the flow of information, and disinformation, we are bombarded with every day which is apparently increasing at 6% a year. We are living in a society our brains were not designed for. We can’t fix that; but, this church is a place of comfort and treatment for those worn out by everyday living.
-Rev. Dave
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