When I Grow Old and Wear the Bottom of My Trousers Rolled: Gravity Free

I grow old… I growold…

I shall wear thebottom of my trousers rolled

~T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Hmmm, when will I beable to rise above it all and be gravity-free?

I expect there will be atime when I look back on the arc of my life and search for the point at which Istopped caring about keeping up with the relentless march of time. In otherwords, the date at which I hung out my Don’tBother Knocking Because I Won’t Answer sign.

Some will no doubt arguethat there should not be such a day. Life, they will assert, is a never-endingjourney that requires that we regularly renew our lease on it which in turnsmean committing to keep up with the pack. As long as I am in the workforce,that argument is valid.

However, I will beretiring in a little under a year. If it was feasible for me to retire to aremote cabin in the woods, I might choose that lifestyle. But for variousreasons, that will not happen.

However, a day will arrive when I become a dissident in terms of the big three imperatives that seek to define our future.

TheMicrosoft Imperative

Microsoft regularlyrolls out new versions of their software with ever more sophisticated andcomplicated capabilities. Each new version is designed to transform and furtherinterconnect our lives. The effect is to bind us together in an ever tighteningand inescapable virtual web.

TheGoogle Imperative

Google continuously pushes the boundaries of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and consumer electronics. Each advance is designed to anticipate how we think before we think it and provide us with no need to think about it virtual or virtually driven products. I fear for the future of independent thinking.

TheMeta Imperative

Meta (aka Facebook) isleading the charge on the transformation of our lives to being social mediacentric. Each new wave lures us deeper into the metaverse. The end game seemsto be to convince us that augmented reality is better than the real thing.

As for me, when I rollup my trouser bottoms and leave them that way, I will disengage from the big threeimperatives and sever the tether that binds me to the virtual web. It is mydesire to float blissfully in a virtual gravity-free zone.

I will float above all the virtual madness out of reach of the three imperatives. Yes, I will be considered an anachronism and I will wear that title proudly.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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