The Modern Condition (and a solution)...

Gadzooks! Dan Clowes really captures a type of alienation we all know in his Sunday NY Times Magazine comic Mr. Wonderful. (read it here) Many of us are guilty of living in our own heads, it is a natural response to the chaos and protocols of society.

At some point we discover that we can not control civilization, but we can exert some influence over the shape and direction of our inner life. This slide into mild solipcism can lead to an imbalance, an incompatibility, or a reality deficit. It's not a crime, and certainly much great art and thought is the result of renouncing the world. But it can definitely numb one to the "subtle nuances of human interaction." Which is a shame, since the quality of our short lives is inextricably linked to our contacts with other people and Nature itself.

So, if the modern condition dulls our social will and our reality interface, in short: our ability to act, what should we do about it? I've been working on a "Reality Boot Camp" concept for a while - sort of a summer camp for beleaguered adults. Remember in all those Bond movies where Q shows 007 around a secret elite forces training camp? Something like that...

The idea is to activate dormant skill sets - to unspool our snarled consciousness in real time and space, to re-confirm our existence and our power, to challenge memory, physical agility, problem solving, communication, emotions, the intellect, and the soul in an environment that is highly stimulating and rejuvinating at the same time. A place to sharpen the human apparatus and repair frayed nerve endings. What's the curriculum? I'm not going to get into it here. I've talked to a number of doctors and professors about this and have come up with what I think would be the greatest, most re-humanizing week-long vacation a person could ever have. If you're interested drop me a line.

If you're not interested in any of this, then may I at least direct your attentions to this outstanding article on squirrels?