Good Luck, My Darling!

Things are speeding up. We do so many things faster now, and don't even think twice about it. I was struck by this as I was planning to take a holiday over the Easter Weekend. I booked my tickets online, and did my hotel reservations also using the internet. I researched all about the sights and means of getting to them online, I am going to purchase entry tickets for most of the places I plan to visit over the internet, and then, all I have to do is stick to the itinerary.

As we become more planned and regimented and disciplined will we miss out on doing things based on sudden impulses? We are currently in a world where things become obsolete faster, and entire ways of life are changing through the new advances in technology which is also happening every year, half year, quarter, week (...ok not weekly yet!). But you get the idea...we are running faster to stay in the same place.

I remember when I was in my final years of school, when I was old enough to think deeply about things and ponder, and I was that magical 'young and fresh' of mind, I used to sit under the trees in the grounds, or look out at the trees in the garden next to the classroom, and dream and hope and write poetry. To wonder at the magic of Tennyson, and Ulysses, to try and wonder how things must have been for Lochnivar, to wonder about the times of Tagore...poetry was a big part of my life then.

But I find it difficult to put pen to paper anymore, I don't think I have the time to do things like that anymore, I keep reading how the language is dying because of shortened versions and text messages, and the lack of reading....some of it must be true..

What then will happen to my daughter? Will she read poetry ever...I am sure it will be so 'uncool' (or whatever the relevant term is/will be) by then...I wonder if she will know the wonder of reading the stories in a book, and painting imaginary pictures of the scenes of fairy tales, instead of having talented animators paint them for her in numerous animated films..she may never know how it is to dream idly, sitting at a window looking out, for she may never have the time..

And what will happen then? Will dreams, and imagination, and fantasy and poetry die a slow death? Will the future arriving every new day with 'better, faster, seamless, at the speed of thought' choke out the human side of things- a little prone to error, a little dreamy, emotional? What shall we do? How do we keep it alive?

I am in future shock ever so often, when the future arrives and I am a little unprepared for it. And then I catch up...my daughter will not feel that. But I hope she will learn to have dreams and imagination and creativity, despite the future and the speed it is forcing us to move in...I hope her poetry survives the future shock and makes it to the surface. Good luck my darling!! Dream on..