Looking back, future generations might see the first decade of the twenty-first century as humanity's great omega point, the moment when physical reality grew so unbearable and physical existence so unfulfilling that we began abandoning the physical world. We grew tired of quandaries and dilemmas and the tedium of what we perceived as an uninspired life. The virtual world was a respite, a cool electronic reprieve devoid of problems that plagued the natural world, that weighed down our personal lives and known reality. We plunged headfirst into cyberspace where we chatted, messaged and played, finding temporary fulfillment in the illusion of pretend, boldly experimenting with second lives. Ecosystems were dying and our bodies were atrophying, memories were being discarded and moments were being lost, but our minds were alive. We lived for the electronic epiphanies and virtual thrills of a purely cerebral realm. We became buzzing hives of activity in a strange new world.
Meanwhile open spaces were vanishing, glaciers were melting, seasons were changing. And when we least expected it, life and what it had become threw us an existential curveball; our virtual lives suddenly lost their shine. We grew weary of the buzzing, beeping and chiming, the tweeting, texting, and poking; of sleeping with our iPhones and living in our self-absorbed electronic identities. We started yearning for more, more than cyberspace could give. Our Blackberry could not imitate the taste of the wild fruit that bears its name. Our tweets could not duplicate one's joy and laughter. Our social media sites could not replicate the warm embrace of another human being. What we had experienced as children had become foreign to our own. The lessons of scrapes and cuts. The thrill of running through a forest. The beauty of chasing butterflies. Nostalgic recollections of falling in love, flirtatious notes from a secret admirer, carved initials in a heart-shaped monogram in the bark of a tree, exhilarating feelings of hearts thumping and pounding.
We longed to roam free from our virtual lives and rediscover a world that was lost, a world we could remember. But we found it difficult to go back. We had been gone so long, had neglected so much. The natural world as we remembered it had become a foreign place. We forgot how to communicate face to face, causing relationships to feel stagnant and vacant, finding little in common. Our lives were concentrically woven in an exquisite mirrored labyrinth that reflected our own self-guided fantasies and hopes, of which none made us content. We suffered the consequences and learned the truth, discovering the cost of humanity's Faustian bargain with the virtual world; our lives seemed busy and occupied, yet were empty and unfulfilled.
We turned our backs on the real world for a few cheap thrills in cyberspace. We could not recall all the empty tweets, only our empty hearts. We had hundreds of cyber friends, few real friends. When we needed someone, our online buddies could not hug or hold, speak or comfort. They could chime, ring, and post empty words on a screen. Roaming in a lost world, we yearned for our childhood memories and experiences; neighbors on porches, family movie nights, hide and seek, the joy of discovery. We missed a sensory world of sights and sounds, of touch and feel; the icy coolness of a Slurpee on a hot and miserable day, licking lollipops and holding hands, soft hair gently blowing in the wind. We craved the beauty in the simple, the alluring fresh fragrance after the first rain, the tranquility of quiet moonlit moments, the stillness of sunrises and sunsets. We ached for experiences which heightened our awareness; a leisurely walk through narrow streets, a quiet lunch in a favorite restaurant, hand in hand strolls somewhere, enchanting road trips to nowhere.
Our story is far from over. The ending is still being written. There is time to realize that new beginnings start with one magic moment, the moment when one person wakes up and comes alive and begins to act quickly and swiftly to restore order and find life in the beauty, mystery, and grandeur of ordinary existence. May this be the first day of the rest of your life in a rediscovered world.
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