The new “button”?

I was born in the mid ‘50s with some memory of what it meant to “duck and cover”. On one of the three main TV channels, black and white info-mercials showed students no older than 5th grade dutifully and simultaneously stand, bend and duck under their wooden desks to safely shield themselves from the on-coming fallout of an atomic bomb. I remember President Kennedy telling everyone that Cuba and the US might start a nuclear war in a few days. People went out and bought supplies, dug shelters and stared at their TV’s while they waited for someone to “push the button” and we would unitedly “duck and cover”.

I remember sitting in our back yard fort playing the card game “war” while eating white Wonder bread coated with butter and sugar, while the adults watched day one of President Kennedy’s funeral. The silence of that somber day was shattered when my Dad hollered “OH God, come look! Someone just shot Oswald”. There seemed so many moments when everyone on the planet stopped breathing – and collectively stared at the images unfolding in front us. In the span of just five years, we saw the murders of JFK, RFK and MLK and Malcom-X. I was amazed to learn that even with only 3 TV channels, the news of President Kennedy being shot reached around the globe in less than one hour; the amount of time it took him to die.

Almost 50 years later, one wouldn’t think the power of these images would have some sort of fallout in the cells of my psyche - but they do. When my central nervous system was fried by a drug (Lariam) --- prescribed by my doctor to prevent malaria as I traveled in India – I spent two weeks in a hospital hallucinating that a nuclear war was eminent and President Clinton only had 7 days before another country “pushed the button”. It was the Cuban missile crisis all over again, in what my mind thought was “real” time.

But just as in the children’s story, when the Velveteen Rabbit asked the rocking horse: “What is Real?”…..it can be hard to answer this question as we each weed through gigabytes of communication and lack of communication. Especially today, when we can easily & instantly be effected world-wide with the push of a precarious new button: “SEND”.

We are no longer only effected by a few powerful men who clumsily could not even communicate via phone with one another during the Cuban missile crisis….trying to help one another not push ANY button, let alone THE button. Today, the voice of any and every person can not only be heard, but be given the power to change the world in an instant. This new power, like any power, carries good and bad. Take the falling of Middle East countries (The Arab Spring).... passionately started by one man lighting himself on fire, sparking the fall of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and others. Take the Sept 11, 2012 riots and murders in Libya, planned by terrorists, but potentially fueled by one person who maliciously made a video/movie on YouTube spewing hatred towards Muslims by denigrating the prophet Mohammed.

Being literally bombarded by technology and hundreds of messages and images sent to our In-box, Out-box and Text box – I have a hard time deciding if we are connected or disconnected by the deluge of mindless and mind-blowing information. There is almost too much to hear – causing us to dangerously no longer listen to one another. We each have the potential to help or hurt. It truly comes down to just that. So what will we each decide to do every time we hit “Send”? Are we adding to the problem or the solution?

I try to take time to disconnect from the technological outside – so I can connect to the Divine that is inside – and listen. Just listen. Asking for the guidance to come in each next thought I think, each next word I speak, especially before talking to thousands of others with the push of a button. This button might be “new” – but the power we each have to make a difference is ancient. As I submit this, and hit “Send” – I hope these words connect with you, that we might all take responsibility for every thought we think, every word we speak and every message we send.