I enjoyed sitting outdoors while dining at various restaurants this fall as we experienced one of the most splendid Indian summers ever in Boulder City. On Sunday, Nov. 28, I was sitting with my wife, Fonda, enjoying another beautiful day when a couple arrived at an adjoining table. They both had gray hair so they were at least in their 50s or 60s.
I found their behavior odd since they both were also wanting to talk on their cellphones, not to each other. That specifically is what is missing in the United States of America, face-to-face conversation.
Our hearts contain consciousness that is most apparent when we experience the love in intimate conversations. There also is healing in our intimate, interpersonal conversations. That healing is what America is missing at this time.
When you go out to dine with someone, please leave your phones in the car. You do not need them, do you? You can always catch up with your device following the meal, can’t you?
I am 69 years old and have never required, as a child or adult, the constant presence of a phone with me wherever I go.
Our lives are not made more enjoyable by having the constant presence of a smartphone, are they? We have chosen the phone over the person sitting across from us or next to us. That is unfortunate for the future of humankind, isn’t it? We are disrupted by this constant presence, aren’t we?
Have you bought something recently on the internet over this holiday season? Don’t you notice a commercial showing up on your device later for whatever it is that you bought? That is not a coincidence.
Your lives are being catalogued and kept in databases. Both your consuming preferences as well as your political preferences are being stored away for future reference by the corporations that make money knowing you intimately. That is, at this point in time, an unregulated use of your personal information to catalog your lives for future reference. It is well documented in the Netflix movie “Social Dilemma.”
What makes us human, also is the source of our healing. It is the consciousness in our hearts that carries the love that people used to reflect when the greatest generation was present. That would be my father and mother’s generation.
As an adolescent, I spent most of the day out playing in the woods or along the streams and lakes of Leawood, Kansas. Never did my parents need me to check in with them every 15 minutes to an hour in order for them to be comfortable with what I was doing. What is it that makes current parenting so involved in children’s lives that they all have to have smartphones?
We are certainly safe here in Boulder City, the safest city in all of Nevada and likely one of the safest cities in the United States of America.
We yearn for the light in our hearts. It is the love that was once ignited in conversation face-to-face. We no longer receive most communication that way. Without intimacy, there is no longer the brilliance of our hearts in conversation. It is what I have sought to ignite, not only in myself, but also in others. It is what makes us human. Seek the self within while enjoying the intimacy of love in conversation. That is the source of endless love for humankind, isn’t it?
The opinions expressed above belong solely to the author and do not represent the views of the Boulder City Review. They have been edited solely for grammar, spelling and style, and have not been checked for accuracy of the viewpoints.
Eric Lundgaard is president of the Aquarian Theosophy Foundation and former mayor of Boulder City.