The road home was flooded by brilliant winter sunlight, criss-crossed with the deep, dark shadows of the trees. The light and shade fell upon me through the glass roof of the car as I drove, setting reality a-flicker like an old movie reel. It seemed appropriate as I looked back on the days and months behind me, taking stock. They too are unreal… they exist only in memory and consequence, yet their weight can crush us if we permit it.
Tomorrow sees the beginning of a new year and a new decade. I am old enough that the thought of seeing in the year twenty-twenty still seems like some impossibly futuristic dream… and young enough to know that seeing in twenty-fifty is not a complete impossibility.
Many of the strange and wonderful technological advances that graced the pages of science fiction books when I was young are now part of our everyday lives. We may not all have a Jetson-esque ‘Rosie’ to do our chores, but our homes are filled with incredible gadgetry. We have adapted to its presence and learned to take it so much for granted that our behaviours as a species are changing… not always for the better. We are amazingly adaptable creatures, though and the void left by what we unlearn or leave behind will be filled with new skills, I have no doubt.
But of all the decades I have lived, this one has been both the worst and the best. And the two are so intimately entwined that it is difficult to separate them, as the one depends on the other.
Continue reading at The Silent Eye
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
I think many of us feel the same way. How did we get here? Time has gone so fast. I think our “devices” have changed our humanity and not in good ways.
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A lot of our tech has improved how we live… but it is up to us to use it wisely.
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A thought provoking post to start the new year with.
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For some reason I couldn’t leave a comment on the Silent Eye site! After a week of grey skies I woke this morning to the heart-lifting beauty of glittering frost, blue sky and sunshine. It’s appreciated all the more after surviving the previous greyness.
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We had spring yesterday… and today we have the grey mizzle and lightless skies here.
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Sue, one of the things about your site is that one never knows what they’ll come across on it. I mean that as a compliment. Happy New Year to you and yours.
Neil Scheinin
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Thanks, Neil… I suppose eclectic sort of fits 😉
Happy New Year to you!
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Bring on the Roaring Twenties! … Happy New Decade to you and the Small Dog. 😀
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Happy new year to you and Mrs Widds too 🙂
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