The Light and the Shadow

Everything we experience in life has a light and a shadow. If life only handed us wonderful experiences, we wouldn't be able to look at them in wonder as there would be no opposite, nothing dark to measure them against. With that, we would no longer look at our experiences as anything other than commonplace. It's all about balance.

My friend, Dave Lent shared a video of Bill Moyers Journal with me; his last show where he interviews Barry Lopez. It's an extraordinary interview, one I've already watched three times in order to absorb it fully. In it he speaks of technology and says, "I believe that there is a way for people to communicate with each other that they have never known before. It's never, I mean, part of this electronic world we live in, you know? It's got its darkness as well as its light.

But for people all over the world, in small groups, to be in touch with each other about what is welling up in every country, among every group of people, which is a desire for justice. You know, there-- I'm trying to remember the story. I don't remember the philosopher, the Greek philosopher who told the story of Zeus and Prometheus. Which really stuck when I first heard it, is that Zeus said to Prometheus, "Okay, you stole fire. Great for you. Now your people have technology. Wonderful. But here's something you don't know. You lack two things. And if you don't take these two things that I will give you, this will be a failure. Technology, you know, fire, all your magic, it will fail completely. It will be your undoing. And the two things that you need to make it work are justice and reverence. And if you have these two things, you won't get in trouble with this third thing that you thought was the be all and the end all."

We have the ability to connect with and touch more people than ever before. The question is, once we do, what is our message and how powerful an impact can it and will it have? Will it be positive or negative?

I invite you to listen to the rest.  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04302010/watch3.html

And I thank Dave for sharing it so I can with you.