HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

Lately I have started paying more attention to the work of Michael Easter. He is not a stranger to many of you, as he's authored books such as The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain.

Among the insights of his that most stick with me are these:

• First, the tribes he lived with in Bolivia, and their diet — and lack of chronic illness.
• Secondly, that we are filling ourselves with the plenty that is characteristic of this and the latter centuries — and we are dying for it.

It's the issue of plenty I'm rambling on about here.

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

My Aunt Pauline wrote her memoirs, entitled "Lolly-Gaggin' All the Way" back in the 1970s, about growing up in a tiny rural Tennessee town. What comes away as most striking to me in this little book is the absence of pictures. The reader must depend on that wonderful human attribute of imagination. With that human feature comes individualization, as no two readers will imagine with the same perspective nor imagery. When she says the dog played in the puddle, no matter how well she may detail this event with her words, the individual reader's mind puts their peculiar spin on how it may have looked, as there is no visual aid in the document.

Visually we are drowning. Never coming up for air, we are submersed in a sea of endless images and videos. That is first.

Secondly, these have become a proxy for real vistas.

Thirdly, some of us are waking up to this, and have begun the struggle of what to do about it.

STEWARDS OF THE TECH

With all innovation, we have it all before we actually understand purpose or have developed the character to use it well for the good of all. Enter Jurassic Park.

GAGGING ON THE ABUNDANCE

BURNING THE SURPLUS

DECONSTRUCTING

STRIKING THE BALANCE