In 2008, the Internet is how we find anything, advertise anything, share anything, and depend on for everything. Whodathunk? The “World Wide Web” has actually arrived!
In the 70’s, when I was in high school, there was one very clunky computer sitting in the main office. We were allowed to type on it and watch the screen fill with mysterious hieroglyphics.
I quickly decided that I was NOT a computer kid.
Anyway, that has all changed, as it has for most of us who still had enough flexibility in the learning center of our brain mass to absorb and process digital tasks.
My son is trying to decide whether or not to go to college. He cannot figure out why he would go to college if he were not studying to be something specific – a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher - all of which require college degrees to further the path that society has dictated. He does not really know what he wants to be. He only knows what he likes to do.
So, this morning at breakfast, we talked about the fact that he loves woodworking and he loves music. We have talked about this before, but this morning I think it actually made sense to him that if he began to take community college courses in these 2 subjects, his knowledge of these 2 subjects would become increasingly broad, making him happier and ultimately creating a possible source of income from whatever he chooses to do that relates to these 2 subjects.
So I said to him “Even if you decided to do something as mundane as opening a music store, you would know more about music, making you more valuable to your customers, thus making you a better and more desirable store to buy stuff from.” When I was a kid, owning a store seemed the most ludicrous, anti-art, un-intellectual, commerce based, commodity driven career and I would not have anything to do with it!
Sigh…
But that has all changed… I have a store. I have had a version of a store for the past 15 years. I sell my art, others artists work, but mostly I sell tee shirts that have my images printed onto them. I LOVE MY STORE! In my store, I teach all the time. I teach people about the work I do, talk to customers about the ideas I have, they talk to me about theirs. I am always learning from them. I am always making art. I am always selling something that is related to art. I am connected to my community in an amzing way.
I have confidence about the imparting of knowledge and the creation of my product much because I have an education in my field. I am not wondering if there is some secret art making language that I am not privy to. I am privy to it. I have made art in the most sophisticated of places. I have made art with the best of them. So getting your education, then choosing where to live, is filled with more options than ever before.
The internet creates the possibility to know something – know someone – create a relationship of some sort – impart knowledge – share stuff – affect each other – without needing to be living in what happens to be the most trendy part of Brooklyn this year. It allows us to live where we are comfortable. Possibly where our family lives. Wouldn’t that be magical? To actually live down the street from your parents while you are raising you kids and be able to make a decent living? Maybe we can reclaim the inter-connectedness of our family life. Maybe we can reclaim some of our lost sanity that was stolen through the 20th century. That so-called “ANGST” created by the fragmentation of the family in the 19th & 20th century can possibly be undermined. Maybe we can reclaim part of our sanity, our birth right as human beings. Maybe we can finally place Nietzsche in the past – where he belongs – as a part of the time line of evolution. Maybe we can truly evolve into the genuine, compassionate, earth-loving, community embracing species that we began as. Maybe we can dissolve the psycho-insanity that pervades our culture.
It is now not weird to be from a small town and to stay there and work. We can stay in our small towns. We can buy local produce. We can support our local public school because our business is in the community. We can walk and bike more often. We can advertise in our local newspaper, talk to our community through our local paper. Sit at the local luncheonette, or by the river, or at a playdate with our kids, or in our kitchen over coffee, and read our local newspaper and KNOW our local community.
We can still make a living in the big world. We can still teach and learn from others. We can write about ideas, share them, make art, show it and sell it , play the drums at our local tavern, our local festival, play at a local open mike, and then post the video that our friend made of us on utube. We can still have all the best of what we absolutely love, what makes us happy AND can be connected in the most intimate ways the big, big world.
