Cheerleading and lines of resistance
How humans experience time is simply fascinating. You finally have a week to rest, and it flows by before you notice. You are on the waiting list for a medical procedure and every day feels like a torture. You walk on the beach, looking for a low tide to access a hidden spot - and a moment later the path is flooded, gone. Sometimes most of what we do is adjusting to things we do not control.
THINK. Imagining a future of our civilisation, mostly from standpoint of technology and human relationships, has been a pet peeve of mine for a while now. One of the reasons I was keen to read a book by an acclaimed Polish author, Jacek Dukaj. Published in 2010, 'Line of Resistance' ('Linia oporu'), is a somewhat scary story of what the world could turn into as a result of mass adoption of technology, and its impact on society, relationships, and a will to even act.
The world of tomorrow is split between minority of people still living within a frame of material, un-augmented reality, and most consumers of virtual (?) content. In the society where everything is so inexpensive and accessible, mobilising to even want anything becomes a major challenge. Like insects caught in thick glue, people need stronger and more extreme stimuli to react. At the same time, the relationships are fluid - each human being becomes a center of their own constellation, shaped by the most current engagement models and interests. Nation-states are no longer relevant - they are replaced by corporations, associations, opt-in 'families' and groups formed to accomplish a particular mission. The common thing they share is a play.
According to one definition, playing games is a voluntary effort to overcoming unnecessary obstacles. In this world, the line of resistance becomes a sole life force. Its designers, shared play content creators, world-makers, aim to construct the most immersive, compelling, even addictive virtual identities people would assume and stay in... with overwhelming lack of will and no necessity to address material reality, shocking oneself above the flatline of boredom is a new meaning of life. Somewhat terrifying?
The novel is a demanding read given its narrative - stream of consciousness alike, frenetic, as if the main character was flipping TV channels at high pace, while scrolling social media and riding a flurry of internet links that lead from one aspect to another. In a way, it so feels like what we are subjecting our minds at present.
FEEL. I took a week off work and travelled with my family. In a high-paced life, it takes a good few days to even start feeling I am on holiday, and it is nearly finished!
It brough me back to one of my favourite philosophical treaties of all time... a 30-page children's book we used to read to our kids when they were very young, by Gunilla Bergstrom. The main character of the series, a few-years-old boy Albert (or Alfie in English version, or Alfons in Swedish original), leads an apparently ordinary life with his father and grandmother in 1980's. In the book about his birthday, a day after Albert complains that he wished every day was equally unique, exciting, full of extraordinary plays, gifts and moments of attention pointed exclusively at him. His grandmother in her wisdom explains the obvious - if every day was as special as birthday, no day would.
This simple truth applies to most of aspects of life. We often get lost in seeking uniqueness and miss the joy of everyday experiences. We live in anticipation of the future and ignore the 'here and now'. We drain mental powers reliving the events of the past that we can no longer change. Finally, in the over-stimulated world, the bar continuously moves up to the highest of recent thrills. A next birthday is always expected tomorrow.
Changing rhythms, letting your body and mind release the tension and slow down the pace of life is an indispensable part of experiencing vacation. It hurts a little at the beginning. I felt uneasy, thrown out of balance, fatigued, sleepy. But this is part of the process and I got to so much better place now. Wish we didn't need to leave Portugal tomorrow!
DO. Sometimes all one needs is to receive a random act of kindness. I was recently nominated to an award in my organization by one of my team members who recently progressed his career and moved on. The recognition came through and I was delighted to read a paragraph about 'Out of this world leader'. In my professional life, these are the moments that matter. Making a positive, meaningful impact of people's lives is my mission, and I could not be happier to see this playing out for this amazing individual.
In spirit of trying new things, I followed a recommendation from another colleague of mine at work and had my first ever Pilates session, outdoors in the sun. A few takeaways: (1) yes, working out from YouTube videos is absolutely possible, (2) I was aware of most of the exercises, but it was the 30-minutes combination of all that made a difference and (3) I never realized I even had muscles that could hurt that much!
With a week just gone by, our last act of the stay is to digitize a board game that my son and his friend designed and created in analog version over the last few days. Members of both families were beta-testing and helping fine tune the work of two 12-year-olds! The 'line of resistance' proved to be nicely drawn, and it created a lot of friendly banter and engagement. Maybe one day it will be an origin story of their life's mission?
I will be cheering for them. This is what I do.
