I’ve been walking my six year old daughter to school lately. No sooner do we leave the apartment and pull down our wool hats over our ears does she sing out “Story please!” Children loves stories. We all do…it seems to be in our genes. But virtual networks, cell phones and portable audio are restructuring those very genes – narrowing our intellectual bandwidth and crowding out a most delicate frequency – human imagination, the creative spark which makes stories come to life.
That’s not only sad, but of grave concern for future generations. As we lose the ability to tell stories, we lose the ability to hold a vision, and with the challenges facing our world - climate change, ethnic conflicts and wars, food shortages and global economic hardship – we are desperate for a new vision.
At the very least, we might spend a little less time with our favorite electronic device, and a little more time reading books, practicing yoga or meditation. Technology isn’t the ultimate problem though….the ultimate problem is….well, let me tell a story as we walk together:
“Once upon a time in the farthest reaches of space on a tiny planet called Htrae near a medium sized star, a creature called Namuh evolved with amazing capacities for understanding things, creating art, music, and ways of living. Over time, the machines and computers got fancier and more powerful. The wild things of Htrae were gradually tamed or eradicated, and the Namuhs multiplied. Changes came faster and faster and and the careful balance with nature was increasingly lost. Stress, confusion and uncertainty were on the rise. Then Uoy came into the world.
Uoy was special. She liked to imagine rainbow flowers growing in the sky, lush forests growing up out of the desert, magic sparkling inside a snowflake, secrets hiding under every stone. She liked to invent gnome friends, enchanted castles, and winged horses, sing songs and make up nonsense rhymes. She was the reigning monarch of her world and though there were owies and tears at times, she always bounced back, ready to reinvent the world in a game. Uoy was a master of fun, until one day, someone – nobody knows who – maybe it was a teacher, a coach, or even a well meaning parent – someone insisted she stop being a child, grow up and learn the rules of life.
Uoy was never really sure what the rules were, only that there were rules and everybody seemed to make up their own. Sometimes they lined up with her rules, but often they did not, and that meant living outside her own heart. No fun! ‘Hey Namuhs, let’s make new rules that work for everyone. Like Free Acupuncture for everyone. What do you think of that?‘
Well, my dear little Uoy, as the narrator of your story (and desperately grasping for literary devices – however artless - to put down my virtual pen and get back to my stainless pins), I think that’s an absolutely fabulous idea. So tell your friends who’ve never been to our clinic to Mark their calendars for January 16, 2010, when CommuniChi will have a free day for new patients from 10 to 4pm. Unplug from all of your devices, fill up your Chi, meet your Muse in recliner land, and reinvent your world!
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