Friday, December 07, 2007

It's a tiny, *shrinking* little world

and I'm sure it's getting smaller by the hour. Six degrees of separation? Ha! Try more like three. This came to me as I was sitting on a bus in Hong Kong many, many years ago when I met a woman who had gone to the same high school I had just graduated from. And of course there's nothing like moving 500 miles from your home town just to meet and fall in love with a boy who grew up in that very same town but you never met until you'd both moved away.

I frequently meet people who either know where my hometown is (which is surprising since a lot of folks who actually live near it don't even know it exists) or know people I grew up with. There are also people who seem to move with me, like some great herd migration that none of us are aware of until we meet again someplace different from last time... mostly old Renaissance Faire friends from California (oh those were the days. I miss Black Point, do you?).

The idea of a collective consciousness appeals to me in a way that religion does not. I think that religion tries to reach for it, but throws a monkey wrench into the works by adding the concept of a great omnipotent leader (paternal or not). Do I believe in a higher power? Certainly, but it's the higher power of the collective consciousness, and not just ours. It's everything, all of it, including the space between the stars. You can call it The Force (I just heard Yoda in my head, explaining the Force to Luke. Yes, I'm a geek), you can call it Mana, call it what you will, but it doesn't really need a name. A few people have told me I sound like a secular humanist, but I'm not even sure that explains my philosophy.

But back to that small world idea. The internet of course has a lot to do with it, so do TV, radio, and other forms of communication that we weren't naturally born with. Ideas now spin faster around the globe than ever before, and what are we doing with all of this speed and technology? It does my head in even considering how much we waste this precious new talent we've developed. Instead of opening our minds to new concepts and learning more about each other, we're watching "reality" TV and learning to hate new people we've never even met. Fear, hate and intolerance seem to spread more virulently than... well, the good stuff. Sorry, after 7 years away from people I could actually discourse with, my vocabulary and debating skills have rather gone down the toilet. I'm working on reviving them, though.

I feel quite literally tongue-tied right now. My brain is spinning and I can't find the right words to convey what's going in in there, but since this is a one-sided conversation, it doesn't really matter. This is why I tend to blog more on other peoples' blogs (by responding) than on my own. It's so much easier to respond to a challenge than to sit around waiting for one to come to me.

Anywho, I've got a business plan to write. Nose to the grindstone and all that. *sigh* What a load of crap I've just written. Just the warm up I needed for the task ahead.

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6 Comments:

At 12/08/2007 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It really is a shrinking world. When I was a kid, it seemed like everywhere we traveled, my dad would run into someone he knew.

He doesn't travel much anymore, but now when I or MathMan travel, we run into people we know or people who have some connection to us or someone we know.

I'm glad you went through this exercise! The blogosphere just shrinks the world more!

 
At 12/08/2007 , Blogger Unknown said...

Hey Kimono,

DCup made me tag you. I hope you don't mind

 
At 12/08/2007 , Blogger dkgoodman said...

I miss the RenFaire. Terribly. Why don't we have one in Central Oregon? Seems like the perfect place for one. Black Point was the best. Last time I went it was at Stafford Lake, which beats the Nut Tree any day, but it's still not Black Point. At least it was close to where I lived, in Novato.

 
At 12/08/2007 , Blogger kimono hime said...

Tag? Does that mean I have to do something weird now?

Welcome, dkgoodman! The cool thing about Nut Tree was being able to pick ripe figs off the trees in the parking lot. The bad thing was.. well, it wasn't Black Point.

Shrewsbury Faire in Corvallis is something of a RPFN refuge camp, but in a good way.

 
At 12/08/2007 , Blogger dkgoodman said...

Thanks, I'll check it out. I've also been told to check out the Oregon Country Fair.

I been lurkin' :)

 
At 12/10/2007 , Blogger Fran said...

There is an odd bit of synchronicity in our world and I could fill a volume of weird coincidences and such.

Why- who knows, there just is.

 

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