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Brexit.  Trump.  Right-wing.  Left-wing.  Stabbings.  Shootings.  Trauma and tragedy.  Keeping up with global and local news is one more layer on this onion of despair we live in.

Twitter and Insta.  WhatsApp and Instant Messaging.  Snapchat and (allegedly) temporary messaging.  Keeping up to date with “influencers” near and far is another layer of insulation in the masks we all wear.

Apps for jigsaws and cats and shooting and treasure hunts and all manner of time-filling numbness.  Getting “time alone” with that favourite app and me. 

Our smartphones have become our god.

I read years ago that our brains are designed to filter.  A filter intended to stop a tsunami of always-on-stimulation.  To give each of us a fighting chance to make sense of the world.

Too much “data” and we are swamped … drifting in the detritus of others’ living.  Too little “data” and we are stranded on a lump of faeces … the product of living too close to ourselves.

Balance in all things.

Exercise.  Food.  Drink.  Work.  Play.  Love.  Thought.  Sleep.  Fun.  Serious.  Smartphones.

All this “news” is not unfiltered data … all these “influencers” are not unfiltered trivia …  all these apps are not unfiltered medication.  It is the choice of our filtering becoming ever more atrophied.  A choice we delegate to those who influence the news … the gossip … the downtime-time-fillers.  We delegate more and more of our choices to these new(s) gods brought to us on 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch altars we call smartphones.

“Google-it” now (instead of “God only knows”).

Because God is “picky” in His responses – whereas Google isn’t.  Google is expansive, indulgent, and abundant … Google has an opinion on everything and anything … always multiple opinions …  those select few opinions we apply our “filtering” find to agree with our own opinions.

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And in this way our opinions become facts. 

Because Google wouldn’t support our own thinking if our own thinking wasn’t correct.

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In this digital community I am connected with many I never find locally.  Here I have found every opinion and lifestyle (never found locally).

Here I find Love is the common currency.

Underneath and within every story – within every “opinion” now atrophied to “fact” – is a human-being motivated by Love.  Love that some call “weird” – but “weird” now made normal by connecting digitally with those who call weird their “normal”.  Because weird and normal exist only as labels in my universe – created and nurtured by me – filtered by my preferences and choices.

A universe evolving into a binary “yes/no” universe.

A universe more and more of “right and wrong” … “correct and incorrect” … “appropriate and inappropriate” … “acceptable and unacceptable” …  A universe we allow others to filter for us …

Others motivated not of Love but of Numbers.

News media needs numbers … influencers need numbers … app designers need numbers … church needs numbers … “truth” needs numbers (to be “truth”) … we need numbers … the “herd” needs herd numbers (to feel safe) … needs expendables sacrificed for you and me … the weak … the ill .. the poor .. the ignorant …

All those “not like you and me”.

We become ever more tribal as we become ever more global.   And the (readily available) “digital” clubs and spears and bows and arrows allow us to war on each other – on “tribes” not like us.  And all to the drumbeat of those we allow into our lives with our 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch gods  … a drumbeat of numbers … numbers not of Love but of personal validation.

“If you don’t believe me – then look at the numbers!”

And another couple of noughts is added to an already bloated income.  And the numbers become “truth” and truth needs self-validation “numbers” more and more.

I align with Love.

It is the only “filter” that seeks kindness … that allows kindness … that allows you to be you and me to be me … that invites you to respect me and me to respect you.

Which is why Love is greater than the law. 

Love is greater than any geographical demarcation.

Love is a universal because Love is the thing we all are/know when we are each new/born.

>>> and if we missed out on Love then or since – we know Love by Love’s absence – we know Love is missing … 

Imagine that.

We know Love even by its absence.
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