In search of the old
I am starting a blog. In truth I always really wanted to. But I never have, even though I love writing. I could journal from my heart for hours, write several versus of poetry, compose song lyrics in minutes or begin writing a book on any random topic right now. I enjoy it. We all have things that come easily to us. For some of us it’s cooking (I wish I had the cooking skills but they went to my sister), for some it’s art and invention (like my brilliant partner), for many it is working with nature and tending to plants (my father for example), some people are skilled in the art of teaching and healing (my mother comes to mind, thankfully I am a lot like her) and for others it’s the strong ability to learn and become brilliant at anything they set their mind to (i’ve always admired this ability in my own brother).
We are all a natural at something. We find our 'natural gift’ so easy in fact that we fail to see that it is in fact a talent. Something that many others would love to be naturally good at. I believe whatever that area of ease is for you, that gives you a huge hint as to what you are here to offer the world. One of my ‘gifts of ease’ is writing (similar to my grandmother). Writing in most forms (obviously not recipes).
I wanted to start a blog years ago but was turned away from the idea after feeling that blogs had started dying. Just like newspaper articles, magazines and even good old fashion proper paperback books, people just aren’t reading them anymore. Some people are, but so many of us are so lost in social media, quick and easily digested seven second videos, podcasts and audio books, we can’t even imagine picking up a newspaper or reading a magazine. It’s over. So why start a blog?
Today I realised something.
I am not a fan of where this world is heading. It sounds great, but the reality will end us I am sure of it. In a world where technology does everything for us including think, where overnight delivery can’t come fast enough, when a blackout renders everyone completely useless, where screens hold our attention in a sick addictive dull gaze, where our bodies are actually turning into potatoes and our brains are slowly eating themselves from boredom… I don’t know your thoughts but I don’t exactly see that as a good sign for human longevity.
In a world that’s seemingly at the brink of loosing everything that actually matters, I want to bring back the slower things. I am not talking about going completely back to living in huts along the river eating only things you can grow, harvest or catch and relying only on the medicine you find growing like weeds at your doorstep (although I am tempted to live more and more like that). I am simply hoping we can go back to less intelligent things. I want an unintelligent tv and a slow phone. I want a car so unintelligent that I actually have to drive it. I want slow loading and a challenge of patience with each delivery. All these smart devices are driving us to destruction. It is strange that that more smart things come out, the less ‘smartness’ is actually seen in the world. Our poor attention span is becoming so useless it can’t even hold on to watch a five second video, let alone read an entire blog post…
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog post. You are the type of human I wish that all humans aspire to be like. The mindful human, the slow human, the intelligent human, the creative human, the information processing, problem solving genius human.
The smart human.
I am starting a blog. Because I hope with some more attention given to longer form writing (basically anything longer than a caption), we can revive what it means to be alive. Life is a beautiful thing and most of us are missing it because we are glued to a ‘smart’ screen.
It is this reason, dear human,
I am starting a blog.
with love & hope,
Madison Mindset
