Nostalgia
The holiday season trades heavily in the currency of nostalgia. From music to movies, to the decorations and traditions, there is a strong reference to a sentimental version of the past. While this can facilitate cheer and goodwill, unless we deliberately pause to center and orient ourselves, we can be swept up in the frenzied commercialism that has come to define our current culture.
In Greek, nostos means “homecoming.” Many of the chapters in The Odyssey are referred to as the Nostoi since they recount the trials and tribulations of Odysseus and his fellow Greeks on their return from the Trojan War. The suffix -algia means pain. If you have ever revisited your home after time away, especially if years have elapsed and/or you have journeyed, what you remember and what you see in present time are no longer the same.
In the current usage of nostalgia we tend to focus on the sweet, warm remembrance of the past, conveniently omitting the grit in our desire to return to something known and unchanging. In times of uncertainty and upheaval, it is natural to yearn for something simpler and safer. The overwhelming possibilities of the present can incline our attention toward a sentimental but ultimately incomplete version of the past. I contend that what we are actually yearning for are the qualities and values of connection that seem so much more difficult to find in present time. It requires less vulnerability to see them in the past, to know how the story unfolds, than to confront the many and increasing challenges of today.
To choose to turn toward connection is to author a new chapter in what will one day be the past. From Ebenezer Scrooge to George Bailey, we are given the impression that a single night of reckoning will yield illumination and course-correction from the brink of catastrophe. Yet the invitation to reframe how we see points to a practice, not a singular experience. The essence of the holiday spirit is calling ourselves, the pieces of our past, and each other back home. This is how we unwrap the gift of the present, no matter what time of year it is.
For more on how chiropractic supports our ability to connect, I recommend this post.
Control + Shift : Connect
I am not a tech person. I prefer to read words on paper instead of a screen. The word “code” prompts me to think of an occult message or a set of ethical principles instead of computational language. As evolutionary as cyberspace is and is becoming, I still prefer the dirty, salty, temperate, and acoustic experience of the physical world. All of that being said, shortcuts when applied adeptly can be a useful way to cut through terrain. There is little doubt that we have entered the Dark Wood and are still finding our way through. Through is, after all, the only way out.
One of the meta-themes emerging from the Age of Crisis we see, feel, and hear around us is a paradigm shift from models of compliance to models of collaboration. The compliance model of governance from authority is a blunt instrument. Blunt instruments are seldom an effective or appropriate tool for challenges that require precision, coordination, and nuance. Consensus cannot be commanded, cohesion cannot be achieved by separating citizens into classes, communication cannot be clarified with censorship. A collaborative model encourages transparency and discourse, recognizes more than one solution, and can effectively coordinate across domains. Control is at the center of the compliance model, whereas connection is at the center of collaboration.
Whether or not it was Einstein who remarked “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them,” there is a distinct ring of truth to the sentiment. This idea is an invitation to use a different set of keys. The shortcut Control + Shift allows us to change the keyboard in use when more than one is available. If we change the keys, perhaps we change the language. When we change the language, we open to a new perspective. The shift from control to connect might be the beam of light that breaks through the trees to lead us through.
"Paying" Attention?
Where does attention come from? What do we mean when we use the phrase “pay attention”?
When I encounter questions about the meaning and use of words, I often find it instructive to look to their origin and development. The word attention derives from the Latin tendere, which means “to stretch”. From Old French to Middle English to attend came to mean “applying one’s mind or energies toward something”. At some point in the mid 16th century, the legal term tender was used as a way to “formally offer a plea or evidence, or money to discharge a debt”.
We tend gardens, wounds, children - stretching our hands and hearts and minds forth to those things we perceive as important and delicate and worthy of care. Yet, at some point, we started using the same word in a way that reflected the influences of capitalism, commerce, and debt. Changes in language reflect changes in thought. The world was changing in the mid 16th century as exploration in new lands coincided with the rise of mercantilism, which was the predecessor of the capitalism we know today.
As the world changes again we see the competition for resources shift from physical commodities (land, oil, metal) to the commodity of information. The types and amount of data that are streamed and collected in the information economy must surely exceed the material wealth that can be extracted from the earth. This recognition has given rise to an attention economy, powered by technology, and expanding ever more rapidly.
It is something so powerful that it hides in plain sight, so dangerous that authority wants to control it at any cost, and so valuable that it is given, for free, to every conscious being.
In the process of witnessing my own use of language, the inquiry arose “why do we use the phrase ‘paying attention’?” Attention is something we can bring, capture, give, and lose. It has immense value as it creates the frame in which and through which we perceive ourselves, each other, and the world around us. It represents the light of awareness that directs the most precious resource we have and the only thing that we can truly claim with sovereignty. It is something so powerful that it hides in plain sight, so dangerous that authority wants to control it at any cost, and so valuable that it is given, for free, to every conscious being.
The next time you decide to “pay” attention to someone or something, I invite you to consider whether the exchange of value in such a “transaction” is in alignment with how you want to use your attention. We do not get paid for the extraordinary amount of data we disclose to our devices in the form of our attention. There are ways to engage with technology more consciously, but it takes discipline and having tools can help. I have found the resources at The Center for Humane Technology to be useful in this practice.
It is an aspect of biological life to consume resources and information. How we focus our attention plays a profound role not just in how we perceive the world, but in how we co-create reality as it unfolds. Using language consciously and creatively will influence thought, thoughts influence perspective, and perspective influences behavior. Take care when consuming. Your information diet will affect your health no less than the foods you eat. May you tend well and be well tended. Thank you for your attention.