What Kind of Paradise

by Janelle Brown

Modern society uses television as a form of mind control, to blind man to the feelings of stress and dissatisfaction. Rather than absorbing himself in quiet and solitude, and learning how to be at peace in his environment, the modern man requires constant entertainment and stimulation. Thus, society keeps its citizens drugged and listless, sitting on their couches without engaging their minds.

I realized, with a spasm of guilt, that I hadn’t read a book since the internet arrived at our house. I hadn’t gone on a walk in the woods, or sketched the deer in the meadow, or played a game of chess with my father. I’d abandoned everything that we valued, seduced by the infinite delights of the Web. Photos of strangers’ children and webcams that showed the weather in Austin

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”

“Well, we’re all strangers to each other, when you get down to it. It’s just that we sometimes choose not to be.” He shrugged. “I’m choosing not.”

Joy is always sweetest when loss lurks just below it.

Life is a constant emotional calibration, then: the tiny adjustments we make every day as we come up against our discontents. We ride this seesaw, between hope and disenchantment, seeking some sort of equilibrium.

We still chose each other to be members of the families that we needed, as opposed to the families we were born with. It is no small thing to have the ability to make that choice; in fact, it’s probably the most important decision we get to make in life. Which is why I make it, time and time again. I’ve carefully built my own community over the years, because if there’s one clear lesson that I learned from my hermitic childhood, it’s that you need lots of people around you if you’re ever going to find your true self. Listening to one voice, and one voice only, doesn’t make you a human being. It makes you a parrot.