It has been awhile since the last post on this site.  But much has happened.  Primary to this thinker’s mind is the seemingly never-ending media blitz of bad news.  Perhaps it could almost be termed a “blitzkrieg” of woe. Of course, the news wants to focus upon constant updates.  And, those updates are not the sort of news that brings a smile to one’s face.

 

To the extent that all things financial are almost synonymous with the emotional state of the nation, the very same reporters who ask pedestrians their concerns are thus giving voice to the angst that then goes out the next morning and manifests the same worry in its buying habits.  Perhaps if the media would take a day off…and those on their “staycations” would stop worrying and start the “cation” part of their summer, this myopic and neurotic state of affairs might slow down.  Certainly, a mass of overwrought, under-relaxed Americans holding their breath through summer are not a boon to economic stability, let alone growth.

 

Yet another concern.  This month’s Vogue magazine offers an article about a genome-database creating firm, 23andMe.  This particular venture is headed, according to the Vogue piece, by two women. One of these women is the wife of the founder of Google.

Separately, these enterprises might not seem too overarchingly problematic – although others would argue otherwise. Yet, when tied up in marriage, it seems just a tad frightening to this writer’s mind that a firm whose mission is to create a never-before amassed database of information, and who will not deny that the marketing of search information is not off-the table…how does one begin to factor that the founder’s life partner is amassing a database of DNA info about hundreds if not thousands of people. 

Could our children be tracked from birth based upon info from parental genes and previously manifest buying habits?  The outlook is so perverse yet yawning that I cannot quite even construct an example.

 

Dear and gentle readers, be not frenzied.  Somehow, things will work.  Breathe and sit in hope, not dread.  Our best hope is our own ability to hope.  Humans excel at hope.  It has brought us through far worse than this. Tomorrow, learn your neighbors name; ask if he or she might need anything in the future.  Help your fellow human. That is what life is really about.