The Yin-Yang of Life

Each day that I rise and look out a window onto the beauty of God’s green earth, I feel grateful to be alive and to be blessed to have such an opportunity to experience the beauty and serenity of the world of Nature. This place of belonging is the glue that holds me together, as does essentially the loving kindness of a few close friends. They live geographically far away; yet, energetically, our souls are closely aligned.

Indeed, even on occasions when I do become unglued from the hardships of these times, the affectionate support of these earthly angels glues me back together. My homestead, meanwhile, provides the grounding to sustain me on a plot of earth that is a rough, yet restorative, kind of heaven.

That knowing is why I can tell you that it is possible to find heaven on earth. The reasons are the same as finding happiness. Both possibilities reside in a person’s state of mind, in other words, how we choose to respond to life’s uncertainties.

But the challenge, to reach that state of mind, is to develop one’s inner qualities of grace and humility – innate within all of us. Doing so requires a willingness to look upon life’s journey as a quest to learn and grow more fully into our higher spiritual qualities, and practice them daily. Added to the aforementioned qualities are: compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, and more.

These qualities are “spiritual” because they refer to the higher, moral qualities that all human beings carry within us, whether we are religious or not.

For example, I have met certain devoutly “religious” individuals who sorely fall short in expressing their better qualities, choosing instead self-righteousness, narrow-mindedness, and a lack of generosity. Conversely, I know individual atheists who have evolved to function more authentically from their `Higher Self.’ Even so, they would not necessarily use the `spiritual’ referent, preferring to base their chosen behaviour upon humanism.

The important question, regardless of our motivation, remains: Are we aware how profoundly we create our own reality, whether human interrelationships, material circumstances, as well as feeling interconnected or not with all planetary life and beyond?

The answer partly resides in our self-awareness that each of us is a `work-in-progress,’ in so far as our own consciousness informs us about how profoundly or superficially we respond to the world at any given period of our lives. For nothing alive stays the same.

In other words, what I suggested above in reference to religious versus atheistic persons refers only to particular individuals at a single moment in time or perhaps a specific period of their lives.

Regardless, life is a `spiral journey,’ and each living organism, including a human being, fluctuates in accordance with a series of responses, inner an outer, to ever changing events. In short, people can change. We can learn from the wisdom of Nature.

As for the `spiral journey,’ it shows us that even when we try to move forward, inevitably, we will confront once again familiar situations, as expressed by human personalities or events, that trigger old patterns that we have attempted to put behind us.

The triggers indicate, regardless, that we have more inner work to do, to release our own out-grown patterns, and that is okay. Growing closer to our full potential is a lifelong pursuit, achieved in stages, and achieved only as grace and humility evolve.

Patience and perseverance are two further qualities that develop through struggle. Their development is a significant challenge in our current culture that socializes us to expect everything to happen instantly, and with minimal pain.

The challenge is for us to recognize our own unhealthy relational patterns and learn from opportunities when particular encounters trigger old behaviours. Each time we will see ourselves respond differently, if we are giving less energetic power to feed the unhealthy pattern, until one day we find ourselves no longer feeling triggered.

That is the step-by-step process that enables us, authentically, to divest ourselves of outdated, and counterproductive, emotional and spiritual patterns of relationship that, if kept, hold us back from growing closer to our human potential.

My suggestion that life is a `spiral journey’ contains another aspect of reality, a reality that speaks to human imperfection and fallibility. On such a journey, each person can choose to move forward in life and shift how we respond or, instead, resist change through attitudes and responses to the world that remain frozen and crystallize.

Sometimes, therefore, it takes extreme events to break through and open a path to a new way of being. The road less taken can appear before us, whether after a meltdown from the heat of our passions and soul woundedness or, alternatively, the cracking apart from the cold rigidity of dogmatic thinking that, sooner or later, snaps from its inner pathological pressure upon our `life force.’

The `life force’ is our soul, a soul organically in flux and energetically interconnected with multiple levels of energy (and, I believe, other souls), on earth and beyond, to which many humans still do not give credence, let alone even begin to try and understand.

How then do we, as a human species, have the audacity to criticize what we fail to understand, because of our intellectual arrogance? I refer here to the mysteries of energetic dimensions that remain largely unknown, both spiritually and scientifically.

Why I become so agitated about this human dilemma is, first of all, because it has two outcomes. Furthermore, at no time previously in history has knowledge, and wisdom, been so accessible to transform human consciousness and create a more life affirming human interrelationship with earth. Yet human nature is so resistant to change.

The first outcome is, we hurt each other unnecessarily when we refuse to acknowledge our own imperfect behaviours, preferring to play the blame game, bereft of compassion.

The second outcome is, environmental degradation continues because of selfishness, and resistance to change – collectively as a species, despite the continuing and essential efforts of caring folks to heal and restore what is broken.

Selfishness expresses itself through: consumerism far beyond our needs; investments to make profits from destroying our planet’s life support system; and refusing to learn how to adopt different ways of life that are possible, using much less energy. We have the intelligence to do so, if we simply would have the will to act.

That is the key – the act of will. I believe it is not terrorism, but instead the least evolved expressions of the human mind – arrogance, indifference, lack of compassion, prejudice and persistence to judge others and, last but not least, the misguided belief that human life is superior to other planetary life – that will cause our undoing.

We, as a species, will be brought to our knees by such mindlessness, unless we learn how to develop `mindfulness’ to appreciate and protect what actually sustains life.

Reflect on what I suggested earlier, in regard to extreme events being required to open new ways of being. The earth is speaking to us. Extreme weather events are forcing people to rethink how to live on this planet, and rethink what to value, willingly or not.

My heart, meanwhile, aches in wondering whether I will be the last generation to benefit from a lifetime of freely available clean water – when some of the poorest populations, wrongly, are already being forced to pay for water – and an economically accessible supply of food, in a world where Nature’s biodiversity still bestows human life with a wealth of beauty and serenity that no amount of money can buy once these qualities are destroyed.

This year, together with a small number of caring fellow human beings, I have taken action – and the battle continues – to fight against one of the most diabolical types of violation upon the life force of the earth – proposals to bury radioactive waste in deep geological repositories (DGRs) in my region.

Yes, I mentioned this activism in earlier posts, but want to widen awareness among newer readers. If interested, read When Spiritual Work Involves Science & Activisim. In that post, there is a link to a previous post that identifies a petition.

Margaret Mead’s quote is popular with our cause. Change does begin with the courage of a small number of caring individuals, from which a ripple effect then can awaken a growing circle of support.

Our latest work, as a coalition, has been the preparation and delivery of individually-researched written submissions to the Joint Review Panel of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, in regard to the first of two proposed DGRs. The first DGR focuses on low and intermediate radioactive waste, and the second on high level waste.

Some interveners also are giving oral presentations at a public hearing this autumn. I am one of those individuals. After delivering my written text a few days ago, I now must find and organize supplementary visual materials, to deliver before the end of August.

What I learned many years ago, however, as a helping professional who came close to a nervous breakdown from overwork, is the essential need for self-care to retain inner and outer balance. As Art Solomon, an Anishinaabe spiritual elder and mentor, once told me, with his pragmatic tough love: “If you do not take care of yourself, you are no good to anybody.”

Today, with Nature’s rough beauty as my teacher, I know that life’s journey is not about achieving perfection, but instead the discovery, and protection, of the hidden treasures that sustain a life worth living.

When past memories return to one’s consciousness repeatedly through the years, they carry a message. Sometimes it symbolizes the need to tell a story. During my years as a fulltime journalist, my favourite articles to produce were interviews with individuals, some of whom were famous and others under-recognized or forgotten. I recall phoning ornithologist/bird artist Terence M. Shortt, to arrange a visit.

My intention was to honour his legacy by giving him an opportunity to share his wisdom, based upon a lifetime dedicated to learning about birds, and mentoring other bird enthusiasts. Mr. Shortt invited me to come and sit in his garden, to share the joy that he experienced daily.

One of my lifelong regrets is that I never made it to his garden while Terence Shortt (1910-1986) was alive. I immediately had recognized that his invitation came not just from a gracious willingness to be interviewed. Instead, much more importantly, the enthusiasm so obvious in his voice was his excitement to have an opportunity to share with another person the world of Nature that brought so much beauty and fulfillment into his life.

After confirming the possibility of an interview, I tried to find at least one Canadian magazine that would appreciate such a story – without success. What really angered me was the haughty response from one female magazine editor who sniffed while asking: “What has he done lately?” When I replied that I wanted to do a story on highlights of his life as he saw them and the wisdom that he has acquired, she curtly rejected the story idea. I was infuriated by her arrogance and disrespect, and decided I would visit Mr. Shortt anyway. But, sadly, I delayed arranging a date until it was too late.

Although I denied myself the pleasure of spending time with Mr. Shortt in person – and I hope he benefited instead from the presence of more dependable visitors – here I partially can make amends by acknowledging his legacy, albeit briefly. The fact is, he was a major influence upon the the lives of several living nature artists, such as Robert Bateman. They do acknowledge Shortt’s talents and generosity and have received much more public acclaim than Shortt experienced during his own lifetime.

Important to note about the internet is the reality that it never should be seen as the sole resource to find information. Books and other cultural documents need to be explored, in order to gather more fully insights on the lives and contributions to cultural history of people. Even in recent generations, who knows how many worthy individuals have been virtually overlooked in digital documents.

Ever the intrepid sleuth, regardless, once I identify a scent to follow I am like a hound dog on a trail of pursuit to the sources. I spent most of an afternoon looking up numerous online keywords in order, eventually, to track down any insights at all about Terence Michael Shortt.

He became an acclaimed ornithologist and renown bird artist, almost inadvertently it seems, because his fulltime day job through 46 years was Chief Display Biologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, where he also taught nature drawing. His job did support international trips to study birds elsewhere. Shortt somehow found the time, as well, to illustrate the books of several authors plus compiling his own books to feature his master drawings.

In the production of his own books, about which details are few and far between online, his most popular book (reprinted in different versions) was titled Wild Birds of the Americas (1977), in which his impeccable drawings were accompanied by equally fastidious written observations about his beloved bird subjects. Please note, the cover image shown here probably does not do justice to his palette, which is why seeing original copies of his books is the preferred choice for anyone who can appreciate the significance of colour rendition in book reproductions of original art.

Eventually I discovered an August/September 1977 edition of Books in Canada magazine, among its online archived back issues – a genuine gift to Canadian cultural history – in which Shortt’s above-mentioned book is reviewed on pages 34, 35, under “Rails, swans and Shortt takes,” and Shortt himself is interviewed on pages 41, 42, under “Birds fly over the rainbow and Terry Shortt has spent a long, happy life following them.”

Despite several typos, these brief insights offer clues to a uniquely gifted artist and observer of nature, yet unassuming and modest, apparently not interested in being in the limelight. His two-fold passion was to be a witness to the phenomenon of bird life and share whatever he learned with anyone interested.

I wish I had known him, and still kick myself in waiting for another day that never came. Probably each of us can recall someone whom we have overlooked, or perhaps still do neglect. Such individuals could exist within our own families. Also, they could include other individuals who do not seek the limelight yet have given so much to benefit other people, society, the planetary environment and more.

Perhaps such individuals have inner peace that transcends the need ever to be recognized publicly. They might even actively avoid the limelight.

Regardless, intrinsically, we require meaningful interactions in the world around us that enable our soul to feel welcomed. We are social beings who thrive on respectful and genuinely affectionate interrelationships.

Given mainstream society’s obsession with a celebrity culture in our globalized world, I strongly believe we need to give ourselves interludes to reflect on what really matters.

We can strive to restore more balance in a world sorely out-of-balance in regard to whom and what we value, in which daily life for so many people has been reduced to numerous, superficial, fleeting sound bites. I bet each of us probably could identify at least one person, perhaps several individuals, with whom a mutually beneficial experience could unfold by offering the gift of unhurried time spent together.

Each and every generation has something to offer, in order to create a holistic fabric of relationships woven from the continuity of human experience through time and space.

Consider what we are doing to ourselves, collectively, when the authentic wealth of our society is being marginalized, stigmatized and under-valued? What I refer to is the wealth embodied in the knowledge and experience of fellow human beings who have travelled the distance in life to move beyond egotistically assuming they know everything, to discover, eventually, that they know very little. Doing so is the beginning of wisdom.

A recent experience brought to the surface of my consciousness the infamous question put to me so many years ago: What has he done lately? As a creative professional, I just filled in a survey that included a number of questions about how the presence or absence of future royalties would impact on my production of educational work.

But, the survey – typical of various other surveys in recent years distributed to creators – focused only on the past three years. In other words, what have I done lately?

If I have been without paid creative work in that limited period, does that imply that I do not exist, that my voice is silenced from contributing to the wider cultural conversation about societal changes that profoundly affect the livelihoods of present and future creators? Indeed, the 2008 economic downturn severely impacted both veteran and emerging professionals in the creative sector as much as other sectors.

Does not a lifetime of production count? The fact is, I still do receive royalties, albeit modest, both as a writer and a documentary filmmaker, from continuing sales, most importantly educational uses of my previously produced work. Royalties are sorely needed in our current economy in which funding new creative projects is almost impossible. Financing, production methods and marketing all are radically being restructured. (That is why copyright must be respected, to enable royalties.)

Despite my human failings, when I could support myself as a working journalist, I did bring attention to a number of deserving individuals through my published articles and essays. As a filmmaker, my proudest contribution was giving recognition to a remarkable person who was socially, and professionally, marginalized until my documentary shed light on the talents, courage and spiritual tenacity of Everett Soop, in Soop on Wheels.

Who do you know as individuals who expressed generosity and caring to make a difference in the world, yet today might feel isolated and forgotten? Seek out these individuals, and honour them by your affectionate presence and acknowledgment.

Acts of caring are what reinforce our humanity, the most precious gift we bestow on this earth.

Spiritual work has many expressions that go beyond religious ministries and the power of prayer. Consider catastrophes and human generosity that ranges from monetary donations to showing up in person, when possible, to give physical and emotional help, whether through professional or volunteer services, and fundraisers.

Most recently, in Canada, we have the first July 21st charity run undertaken by citizens and visitors in eastern Québec, along the route of the inexcusable runaway train carrying crude oil, which derailed and exploded, causing death and destruction in of Lac Mégantic. Also, of course, have been the platoons of volunteers in several locations to help victims in western Canada after record-breaking Alberta floods.

Other expressions of `spiritual work’ can be more challenging, for these reasons. They involve forms of nonviolent citizen protest pitted against environmentally-threatening activities that, first of all, divide the regional communities affected and , secondly, get reduced by the news media to “activism,” usually in the reductive, pejorative sense.

In this second case, mediocre news reporters, who attempt to look “objective,” undermine the deeper truths that concerned citizens try to expose. Such reporters quote misguided, if not corrupt, politicians who try to diminish such citizens not simply as “protesters” yet, moreover, by labels such as “interfering outsiders,” foreigners,” and who sometimes invoke, abusively, the attention-getting “terrorist” label.

Another activity in public protest to characterize as `spiritual work’ is the unseen, thus generally unheralded, deep and complex research to which concerned citizens dedicate themselves for months, if not years, on end. They do so to discover and expose the more important facts about industrial decisions that endanger life.

These citizens feel compelled to do so, when confronted with self-serving political power-holders who abdicate their own moral responsibility to carry out relevant scientific and medical research that is independent from the mutual self-interests held by certain corporate interests and such willfully ignorant politicians.

To be clear, I am not referring to all forms of activism as spiritual work. The human condition is complex, and so are the motivations within the human heart that can be conflicted about what actually is compelling a person toward public protest.

Our world today is moving through a major transition, at multiple levels, in which several aspects of a person’s life can be in upheaval, even without natural disasters, political revolutions that become extended with no predictable outcome in sight, or the inevitable industrial catastrophes caused by arrogance and negligence.

As readers familiar with my blog posts already know, I regularly refer to the `sacred feminine’ as a thread that weaves through much of my writing. The sacred feminine is grounded in the life force within each of us as well as within all forms of life on this planet.

Essential today is to know what we must protect, what we must “stand for” more than what we stand against, and to do so from a place of love and caring, rather than from hate and anger.

Taking a position from our “Higher Self,” from which we manifest our higher – namely, spiritual – qualities such as love, compassion, humility, gratitude, grace and more, is the ground on which a human being needs to stand in order to carry out `spiritual work.’ The further aspect is that these higher qualities are expressed from an innate recognition of relationship.

Ultimately, what really matters about being alive is how we take care of each other and the planetary life that sustains our life, not only now yet for the future generations to come. Acting now, however, is imperative in order to safeguard the children today and the children to come.

That is why much of my time this year is dedicated to doing scientific and related research, and prepare interventions to fight against the first of two proposed deep geological repositories (DGRs) to bury radioactive nuclear waste. Please see blog post “Do You Know Where You Live? May I Suggest – A Bioregion” about this issue.

I also explained in that post why I am writing fewer blog posts, because such research is taking most of my time. Nor can I look for paying work, while committed in a volunteer capacity, as a caring community member, to prepare written and oral interventions.

Please know as well that writing a blog is not a hobby, but instead one way for me to contribute educationally to the wider world. Donations, therefore, are appreciated, and needed, to cover basic living expenses.

A public hearing will be held for a month this autumn, beginning mid-September. The Joint Review Panel (JPR) on this proposed nuclear waste dump project has accepted my submission outline; hence, allowing me to contribute a 30-minute oral intervention. However, I must deliver the detailed written paper for a mid-August deadline, with extra days given if I choose to add visual images.

So, this is going to be a long, hot summer in more ways than one. After sweating through the previous week-long horrid, sleepless heat wave, in my rough yet darling century-old farmhouse, I am trying not to fry my brain.

For I am exploring thousands of pages of documents, both from the nuclear industry and also seeking independent literature from which I can glean opposing scientific views, to illustrate why a DGR is fraught with uncertainties.

This intellectual exercise, by the way, relates to my previous post titled “Internet’s Impact on Brain – What You Need to Know.” In that post, I emphasized the value of taking opportunities to enjoy natural environments, which allow a person to be present to the moment at a soul level while also developing the brain’s capacity for contemplation.

Interwoven with such a holistic perspective is the very real, and very practical, need to develop the brain in order to build the capacity to investigate and comprehend a lot of information at deep levels. Doing so is essential when a person chooses the task to organize complex facts and present a case to argue against dangerous, industrial activities, particularly ones in which risks to human and environmental well-being will continue.

To be equipped to address the high stakes of our time, and participate in decision-making that impacts on the quality of life of our planet, we, as planetary citizens, are called to take responsibility to become well-informed, in order to make wise choices and to be clear about what we stand for.

Wherever you live, what is it that you stand for, and how are you preparing to protect what you cherish?

Comic moments in life are an essential antidote to tragic events unfolding relentlessly around us. Recalling such serendipitous moments also lightens a heart that may weigh heavy from life’s challenges. That is why a smile brightens my face just in telling you about the showdown, in miniature, on my front stoop one sunny afternoon between a grass snake and a praying mantis.

It was fascinating to watch, as I came full stop a few feet away. A tiny praying mantis was poised, eye-ball to eye-ball, with the much larger snake for what seemed like a long time. I figured the former would be a nice appetizer for the latter. But, who would think? The praying mantis merely jerked its head forward threateningly, and the snake backed off, slithering off my stoop into the garden.

Bearing witness to the wonders of Nature is a delightful practice to relax the mind. Doing so also exercises our higher qualities, such as patience and being present in the moment, that help us become more fully developed as human beings. That is why the credo to “slow down and smell the flowers” truly is not a frivolous piece of advice but, on the contrary, a piece of wisdom to take to heart. Even your brain will thank you.

Deeply gratifying is to have the wisdom of my own quest for inner and outer balance in recent years verified by the scientific evidence presented in The Shallows, What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (2011) by Nicholas Carr. A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this book’s importance also is evident in reviews such as Slate magazine Michael Agger’s referral to it as nothing less than “Silent Spring for the literary mind.”

Indeed, the technologies upon which we have come to rely are filled with paradox. Not for the first time do I find myself ambivalent in writing a blog that will entice readers to concentrate their gaze, and stay engaged long enough to read through my philosophical musings. In doing so, my hope is to inspire thoughtful reflection.

At times, however, I want to implore you to turn off whatever computer, iPad, smart phone or other gadget into which you have plugged your mind. Leave the techie toys at home or the office, find a park or a wood or a beach, and linger for a while. Open your mind and soul to the ambience of a natural environment.

Tune in to your body, physical senses and feelings, through visceral interactions in real time and real space. Allow the poetry of your soul to awaken. Discover contemplation.

As for me, I feel blessed to have my computer positioned beside a large picture window that overlooks a wealth of countryside greenery. In these summer days I listen to the birdsong of the barn swallows who come and go frequently to their nest under the eaves above this window, and take delight in bumblebees dancing on the flowers.

Here’s a question to reflect upon. Given the Internet’s ubiquitous presence in our lives, professionally and personally: How are you creating your inner and outer balance?

To help us understand better our enchantment with the ever-evolving `intellectual technology’ called the Internet, The Shallows author Nicholas Carr describes the trajectory of a computerized world that began more than a half century ago.

He also confesses to his own enchantment and efforts to negotiate digital tools, so predominant in all our lives, and essential for his livelihood. The impetus to write this book was seeded in his quest to discover what’s been going on inside his own head:

“The deeper I dug into the science of neuroplasticity and the progress of intellectual technology, the clearer it became that the Internet’s import and influence can be judged only when viewed in the fuller context of intellectual history. As revolutionary as it may be, the Net is best understood as the latest in a long series of tools that have helped mold the human mind” [Carr, 2011, p. 115].

Nicholas Carr is a fabulous storyteller. His book can appeal to an audience wide and diverse, as he walks us through centuries as far back as ancient Greece, ranging from the thoughts of Socrates to the thoughts and “feelings” of supercomputer Hal, a key character in Stanley Kubrick’s prophetic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In other words, Carr relates history through the disparate personalities of major thinkers and creators, showing how and why particular choices happened, up to and including Hal’s disquieting symbolic role, which is to provoke us to pay attention to who and what we are becoming, as human beings, through our particular choices.

The yin-yang of Carr’s storytelling style is quite brilliant. On the one hand, he delves into the minutiae of tiny details in the lives of historic personalities, in regard to how they variously grumbled, yet coped with, technological changes in their respective eras.

On the other hand, Carr presents the breadth of conflicting views on the multi-layered benefits vis à vis the pitfalls. In the best tradition of good journalism, he equips the reader to make up his or her own mind, more fully aware in negotiating daily sojourns onto the Internet, known to us intimately as `the Net’ or `the Web.’

The Shallows‘ ultimate purpose, regardless, is to take us on a journey that helps us be more receptive to what the latest science now can tell us, about the Internet’s impact on our brains as individuals, and collectively, as societal cultures.

Carr characterizes, metaphorically, how online searches and search engines’ pathways fleetingly direct our attention to “snippets of text…while providing little incentive for taking in the [written] work as a whole. We don’t see the forest when we search the Web. We don’t even see the trees. We see twigs and leaves” [p. 91].

Consider what Carr suggests above. If I sprinkled my usual array of hyperlinks through this post, would you be bouncing out and hopping all over the Internet like an `energizer bunny,’ maybe or maybe not hopping back to finish reading this post, grazing on small, disconnected morsels of information, back and forth?

My intention, when I do insert hyperlinks, is not to please Google but, much more importantly, to provide deeper and more expansive understanding to my readers. My assumption has been that folks would read through my whole post and, only then, might follow up – to learn more – by checking out the content in my offered hyperlinks.

But, regrettably, according to Carr, uninterrupted linear reading of a narrative is being replaced, increasingly, by an online reading habit that merely scans a page and is very attracted to any distraction such as hyperlinks. Oh dear.

The author declares: “The news is even more disturbing than I had suspected. dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, educators, and Web designers point to the same conclusion: when we go online we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning” [p. 115-16].

In his chapter “The Church of Google,” Carr outlines Google co-founder Larry Page’s view that the human brain does not just act like a computer – a popular notion that Carr challenges – but instead is a computer, “an extreme view,” says Carr. He expounds on how Google’s vision largely is based on Page’s vision, a vision influenced by Page’s father, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence.

Carr next explains why the `brain as computer’ metaphor is basically incorrect, as a fallacy “built on reductive assumptions.” I urge you to read The Shallows, because my post cannot do justice to the important insights that Carr gives us to think about.

Choices cannot be made, wisely, unless we equip ourselves with awareness first. Will we choose to further develop habits of Internet use that fragment the mind, reduce our capacity to focus and concentrate, and thereby sabotage our intellectual potential for deep creative and original thinking so essential to address our uncertain present and future?

Carr, ultimately, calls us to value what makes us human. He cites Joseph Weisenbaum, a computer scientist labelled a heretic by artificial intelligence believers, close to 40 years ago, in writing that what makes us human is “what is least computable about us – the connections between our mind and our body, the experiences that shape our memory and our thinking, our capacity for emotion and empathy” [p. 207].

What powerfully resonates with me about the message in The Shallows is how we, as a human species, may be forfeiting the possibility of transforming our consciousness to create a more caring world, unless we question the Internet’s influence upon us.

Nicholas Carr’s hope resides in an anti-Net backlash, a hope reinforced by the large number of responses from “young people.” Carr then points out: “Net culture isn’t youth culture; its mainstream culture.” Provocatively, he adds: “What are Facebook and Google but giant institutions, arms of the new Establishment? What are smartphones if not high-tech leashes?…Some kind of rebellion seems in order” [p. 227].

Humour, as I suggested at the beginning of this post, has a vital role in our lives. In dealing with the serious issue of getting lost in “the shallows,” treat yourself to a chuckle by seeing perhaps your own Internet dilemma mirrored in the hilarious animated short video “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.”