Convenience

The famous biologist, E. O. Wilson, compares species that are able to occupy multiple habitats with those “specialized to live in particular habitats.” For instance, one kind of finch may find different sources of food, while another may be specialized to a single food source. Wilson says that the highly specialized species are more likely to decline to extinction as the environment changes.

Believe it or not, we humans are the specialized kind. We haven't always been that way, of course. Our best trait, our inventiveness, has allowed us to mine any environment for its resources. Indeed, we still may inventive and resourceful enough to survive through the upcoming centuries.

But remember, as we ritual with ideas, not only do they evolve, but we humans evolve right along with them. Alas, evolution is not always progress. Our inventions have evolved to astonishing levels, yet we have evolved into a very specialized dependency: convenience.

What too few of us are learning, however, is that convenience does not make for good health. Convenience is good for a generation or two, but then it slowly kills the species.

Convenience is trapping us in our obesity and other diseases of the sedentary life. It keeps us dependent upon non-local industry; it makes us slaves to oil; we are in debt to foreign powers; it rapes the planet; and we are just comfortable enough that we can't get up off our behinds and do something about it.

Ever since the dawn of human consciousness we have been tempted to worship symbols instead of ideas. Symbols are the physical manifestations of ideas. That first thigh-bone, for instance, used as a weapon; for a long time most people were attracted to that bone, but they abandoned that craven symbol of power when someone figured out how to make a good spear.

One good idea generates a lot of symbols and things, and for a long time people go after the stuff until the next new idea comes along. Sometimes we go for the stuff for a long, long time. Today, even though people have lots of ideas, we're stuck on the stuff. We can't give it up.

Much worse, perhaps, we mindlessly ritual with all our stuff. That is, we don't consciously ritual with it for any other purposes than to pass the time or to make money to buy more conveniences.

The more convenient our lives are, the more status we have; things and stuff are status symbols of convenience, not of character. People today don't respect an inventor, they respect an inventor's wealth. And why shouldn't they, since most inventors are only out there inventing in order to make money.

Yet are we happy? Let's just say that we are just too distracted by high-quality stuff that we can ignore what's not so good about the state of things our lives, and in the world.

Conscious ritualing may help us find our way out of this quandary.