More than Machinery, We Need Humanity

Summer is here and I think I know what I'm doing. I'm angsty and ready to be out of my house. Just the typical teenage day. At least I'm free from schedule and routine.
I leave for Asia in two days... Wait. One and a half. I'm lying in my bed with sun-blistered shoulders, listening to the Aquabats. Always listening. My room is covered with my laundry I just did, but had no time to put away last night. I have half read books scattered around my room and my receiver on, playing only the skipping of the end of my Tom Waits record.

My puppy just came into my room and is falling asleep with his head on my ankle. I love summer because I get to spend more time with him. I love my dogs, sometimes more than I love people.

Anywho, I just got a hookah a couple days ago and have been absorbing smoke 10x my normal rate. And I have minute freak outs, where a blanket of anxiety smothers me with images of my lungs being crusty and black. So I prayed for my lungs today. I sent them happy vibes and short sentences of encouragement. I believe that is enough to keep them alive.

I think It is beautiful how animals are so sensitive to things that humans spend their whole lives trying to ignore. In the middle of sleep, my dog, Grayson's muscles all tightened as his heart rate reached 34934080458390485 bpms. Who knows why... the wind.. or maybe the sound of footsteps downstairs.

I've noticed that we tend to trade awareness for comfort.

We choose ignorance in a world of information. We tend to ignore situations that do not effect us. Civil wars, genocides, and slow and subtle suppression of human and civil rights. We do this with the Patriot Act, with Uganda, with Thailand, with Tibet, with our own government and the 100 thousand dollar cameras posted at every stoplight.

We sit in front of computer screens every day, drenched in Novocain. All we know is that ever-changing screen. We ignore the man in our basement stealing our inheritance and dignity. We forget about our children, playing in the streets. We drive to work every day, blocking out the horns of cars and the screaming children at restaurants.

No wonder we have lost touch with the earth. No wonder we no longer understand each other.

We should not be spending hours gazing at glowing rectangles. TV, computers, I phones... They are turning us into robotic machines... "more than machinery, we need humanity"

This is Shpongle.