As we gear up for the Season of Seasons, I found this humorous, but quite accurate, post. Why leaf blowers are evil. Basically, they show our decadence, our sloth, our divorce from the natural world. They demonstrate the worst of modern, industrial age humanity that sees the world over there, and men here. Gone already was a world in which God is everywhere in the world I'm in. Now it's barely God, and a world I'm happily separated from.
This made me think of Emily Stimpson Chapman's book "These Beautiful Bones - An Every Day Theology of the Body." It was a really good read overall because it put very similar ideas into context. Our bodies are made to DO things: to work, to create... Raking leaves, chopping onions, caring for our homes, observing traditions... these are all good things in and of themselves that are worthy of our time and physical attention. I appreciated it because it was more than just the human sexuality aspect of Theology of the Body.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great insight. I become more and more convinced that we are on the downward slope of the industrial era bell curve. Early on it was all positive and everything seem to be a leap forward. Any ill effects assumed to be minor compared to the benefits. Now we're starting to see the failures, the serious problems (if you believe, for instance, Global Warming narratives), and other results more subtle. Our being segregated from nature and increasingly from basic living as ever understood, is one of those.
DeleteFun fact. When my wife was in the hospital, the cardiologist was going over her family history of heart problems. My wife said it seems like she got hit worse than her dad, who in turn was worse than his dad. The specialist said that's common today. That's because with all the tech, so many don't move and function the way they did even 30 or 40 years ago. We forget just how active people were, even in the 1980s, before the tech boom of the 90s. Forget how active life was in the 70s, 60s, 40s, and before. And that, per her, is one reason we're seeing far more health problems among younger and younger Americans.
This was also a major theme in a recent podcast with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, and they're coming at it from a completely secular position too.
Deletehttps://thefederalist.com/2021/09/15/is-postmodernism-wiping-out-human-adaptability/
Now I tell you, when BOTH the priest and the atheist agree on something? That's when I pay extra attention.
Yep. I see it as a bell curve. The early generations of modern industry and invention were generally upward spiraling. Whatever negatives there were seemed overwhelmed by the positives. We somehow topped out, however, and now I see us on the downward slide, where a growing number of developments in our age are having their benefits outstripped by the negatives.
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