(Third of a series)
“…Humility, like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. – Henry David Thoreau
[Select a handful of those things in your bucket list that have the highest chance of coming to fruition given your time frame. In tech speak, this means before your life’s energy goes into ‘low batt mode’ and life has run out of sockets to plug into.]
THERE is a dumbing down going on in modern society in the last 30 years or so currently accelerated by mass media and the internet. They feed the masses with an endless cycle of news, opinions and entertainment that are meant to follow an agenda set by the global masters of media and tech companies.
There is an overwhelming volume of information often manipulated to suit an agenda. Ironically, this does not necessarily lead to the desired wisdom of the mind and heart.
Their platforms — television, print and the internet — are used largely, as propaganda tools to advance an agenda. Ad revenues for their bottom line are fine and dandy but the real goal behind mass media and tech companies’ existence these days, when they provide news and information, is the manipulation of the mental and behavioral control of the masses. What is the ultimate goal? It is the pursuit of power to produce changes in the mind and heart to preserve the status quo. And what is the status quo? That the elite continue to be so …
So mind what you watch. If you think the promotion and furtherance of your well-being drive the large media companies’ agenda these days, I have a bridge in the Sahara I can sell you.
So what is one then to do for news and entertainment these days if you’re just a normal, average human being just minding your business?
I would say GO ROGUE. Go au naturel. Cut off the cable. Minimize plugging into the internet. If you need information, use Bing or Duckduckgo as your search engines instead of Google that has lately been behaving as the Master of the Universe employing algorithms that filter out ideas that go against their globalist agenda. Disengage from social media slowly or go cold turkey. It is your choice. You have the power.
Social media produces no product. It is no more than a data collection agency that sells and repackages information you provide to them via your postings and sells them to the highest bidder, whether a political entity seeking votes and thereby power or commercial companies wanting your business. Test it by searching for any widget to buy and lo and behold, within minutes, there are pop-up ads of similar widgets driving you nuts.
Talk about online stalking!!! It is disconcerting, to say the least.
We fume quietly or rage and rant for the most part about the death of our privacy. But take comfort. Life is a series of action and reaction much like a pendulum. One day, when people are fed up enough to set things in motion to rein in the undue influence of these amoral tech giants, these obtrusive entities will have to be broken up to smaller bits so they cannot be a danger to society much longer. Will this happen in our lifetimes? That, my friend, is a 64,000 dollar question.
What have we got to lose? The news, for the most part, is fake. The alphabet networks have lost credibility as they shill for their liberal agenda. Most celebrities are nothing to celebrate about. As their masks fall off, their oversized egos are cut down to size, their veneer of respectability cracks. You realize these so-called stars do have feet of clay after all, just like you and me. So dump them.
So here’s one for the bucket list for those who are innately curious about the origin of life and life itself and want some honest to goodness entertainment that brings a life perspective. If you really want to be in awe of something greater than yourself, go star gazing heavenly bodies — real stars — the sort that burns out after billions of years. It promises to be quite an experience.
Start small by watching meteor showers. They occur all the time but they are visible to human eyes on cloudless, moonless nights. Meteors may be the residual particles of the seemingly infinite cycle of creation and destruction as the universe continues to expand in the last 13 billion years during an event called The Big Bang, according to the best educated estimates by cosmologists.
Meteors are made of dust and ice ranging in size from a grain of sand to a corn kernel, hurtling through space at great speeds and burning up quickly in a spray of colors as they enter earth’s atmosphere.
Thoreau once said that humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. And it is true when you become a night sky watcher. If your circumstances permit it, and you have family and friends that are up to it, do this one thing that others have suggested we do before we kick the bucket.
Schedule time to hie off to a safe place (a public park, a friend’s mountain cabin, a boat at sea or even a cemetery) far from the city lights at night with friends or family or any kindred spirit to set up camp between July 17 and August 24 to view the Perseids, the most popular and spectacular of meteor showers.
This summer, it is show time. The Perseids is a celestial treat for those who take the time and wait patiently in darkness. Experts say that there is an average of 70 meteors per hour guaranteed to put up a show
For 2018, the Perseids are projected to peak on the night of August 12 and the early morning hours of August 13. Mark these dates. Pray for good weather. There is a new moon and the darkness will create ideal conditions to watch these shooting stars.
Check out the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles, if you leave anywhere close. Their reason for being is watching the night sky.
Before midnight, dress appropriately and lie down on camping blankets on the ground keeping a thermos of hot chocolate and some munchies within reach and wait eyes wide open. Bring bug spray. There will be streaks and flashes of colors against a backdrop of velvet black firmament as the Perseids, like celestial clockwork, hit the earth’s atmosphere, as they have done so for thousands of years.
Come to think of it, like meteors, we are made of dust and our life is just a brief flash on an infinite timeline. If we do this often enough, we may come to realize how great is our God who has fashioned each one of us out of ordinary dust to create a unique person capable of reflecting the beauty of the creator within a lifetime.
The experience can show to us the vastness of the universe and how little we are in the great scheme of things. If social media has the power to bloat our egos, the opposite is true of this exercise. Patiently waiting for shooting stars all in God’s perfect timing, can grind our egos into dust. This can make us humble enough to ponder the heavenly lights. We can then begin to appreciate our life and the lives of those in our immediate orbit and live the rest of our lives praising God.
That’s what watching meteor showers even once during our lifetime can do for us. It can give us an inkling of how great God is and how blessed we are.
When we’re ready, willing and able, we may even go bolder and include the adventure of seeking the Northern Lights in the freezing cold of the Arctic zone. But that’s another entry on the Bucket List for another day.
Next week: Another idea to consider for The Bucket List …
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Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail [email protected]
