The Internet is beautiful.
The Internet is terrifying.
I had this song on an old cassette that I bought used that I’ve since packed away somewhere. It’s Jackson Browne’s version of an old Incredible String Band song called “First Girl I Loved”. This version was on an Elektra Records tribute album that came out in 1990 called Rubaiyat.
When I say that the Internet is beautiful, I mean it’s pretty darn nice that I can look up this song and actually find it.
It’s amazing that I can locate things on the Internet that I couldn’t find in that box I packed away in the corner of “somewhere I forgot”.
There is some kind of beauty in all that stuff out there being available if I can just press the right keys. It’s there for me if I can just remember how to ask correctly.
I guess that it’s kind of terrifying when you think that you can find just about anything you want…and then some. Just look up all the information about Edward Snowden you can find right now. It boggles the imagination.
Speaking of Edward Snowden for a moment…just to digress for a moment…didn’t we used to celebrate people who were brave enough to stand up for a cause they believed was right? I learned about all sorts of people in school who were heroes for doing that…but this guy’s a traitor for pointing out something he feels is wrong. It’s hard to figure out sometimes.
I don’t want to “make the list” because I mentioned “Edward Snowden” in a blog…but it is hard to figure out…except for the extreme embarrassment to the US of verifying something that we already suspected…why this guy can’t even find a country willing to let him take his shoes off in.
It makes me wonder if it’s safe to pose an opinion about anything….just let it all be what it is might be safer.
Keep your nose clean and your head down, don’t ask questions…and don’t give up any big secrets.
What’s the point of having a passport if you can’t enjoy it?
Back to the song…in light of the Edward Snowden situation…how long is it going to be before we have to stop singing great lines like “you turned into a grown up female stranger”?
We may not know each other…but maybe there won’t be any strangers in the future? Somebody’s going to know everything about Everybody at some point…whether we’re aware of it or not.
All the information but none of the connection…that can’t be healthy now, can it?
This post was about a great song. Art will always be with us…there is a need to express and feel…there is a need to make connection and be part of something universal and bigger than just “ourselves”…there is a need to experience “spirit”. We need to be able to share that experience with each other.
We have needs that no amount of technology can completely change or take away.
I think that people will seek out a way to express those needs no matter what is going on in the world. Artists will always seek a way to let what they need to express out where it can be shared with other people.
I hope it doesn’t get harder to share that connection as the years go by…in our “brave new world”.