I stepped out through the back door of the cathedral in Segovia and onto a large paved terrace surrounded by stone lions. When I turned to look back to the tall arched doorway I noticed that the plain glass doors which hung in the doorway perfectly reflected the buildings across the street. I took a photo.
When I loaded up the photo later I noticed that there were some strange lights above and on the roofs and when I zoomed in I saw more clearly that behind the reflection of the tiles and the satellite dishes some of the cathedral’s stained glass windows shone through the glass door.
That got me thinking……
Here in this one photo is an interesting idea. For centuries the church has created the images and the stories to tell people what the world is like, what life is like, and how they should live. With captivating art and gripping stories it presented a particular view of the world. More than that, really, because in presenting that view and spreading it so widely, it created a reality for the people who lived in it.
But look at those satellite dishes.
Who is creating the images and the stories now? Who is telling people what the world is like? What life is like? And how they should live?
Who is presenting a view, and spreading it so widely, that it’s creating the reality for those who live in it?
With the rapid development in communications technology, with powerful mobile phones, connected computers, the internet, social media, memes, images and videos which “go viral”, some writers say we have created a whole new layer of the environment in which we live – the “noosphere” (the sphere of human thought). The truth is we’ve always had a noosphere. We’ve always lived, we humans, within this environment of human thought.
There are the image creators and the story tellers who fashion the patterns in this environment, and in so doing, they influence many others.
We have a choice. We can be the image creators and the story tellers, or we can be passive consumers. If we choose to be passive consumers, whose world, whose idea of the world, are we choosing to live in?
If we choose to be the image creators and the story tellers, what images shall we share? What stories shall we tell?
Heroes Not Zombies 
A very deep truth, yet so easily overlooked: For the first time in history we humans, almost no matter where we are or what we are, have control over the means of communication. And that means we control parts of the noosphere – or whatever we shall call it which we had no chance of controlling in the Middle Ages, or affecting.
Sure, we might argue that whatever we let out on the Internet is a drop in the ocean. And it is, in a way. But the totality of whatever we let out on the Internet, through a WHOLE life – what about that? Or just … 20 years. 30 years.
Sure, the Net will be different when we get older, but it will be there – of that I am sure. In some new incarnation, but still … And stuff we left on it years ago … it may very well be around. And somebody *will* find it. And *will* be *affected* in some way by it.
If I, say, take 1 picture each day of my food and post it or tell one person each day s/he is an idiot for not thinking like me … spend energy on that – a little bit – ever day, then I have created the following:
365 x 1 year = 365 pieces of Noise or Negativity, floating around the Net.
Maybe not forever, but what if it does … for centuries? After all, we get ever smarter computers – ever smarter search engines … ever bigger and better ways to store data, so why not?
For the first time in history almost everybody who can read and write and who have access to a computer or phone … almost everyone … – can affect everyone else with their thoughts! In a manner of speaking …
But what if we dedicated just 10 minutes every day to find a blog or a forum or some social media and post something uplifting. A thought. A picture. A piece of advice?
In 40 years that would be over 14000 pieces of light – out there for god-knows-how-many-people to read!
That’s a humbling thought. I try to act on it every day, and you just reminded me why. Thank you.