If there's anything I'm meditating on this week . . .

On one statement in class last week that stuck with me. "Primal man lived in a world lit only by fire."

Actually, humankind lived in a world lit only by fire until the last -- what? -- hundred years or so? That kind of puts all our burning (pun intended) problems in perspective. Yes, we have marvelous technology, including the machine on which I write this. The last hundred years have seen strides in science and technology, and a standard of living, that could not have been dreamed of even by the eminent Jules Verne. But . . . if we think of all the accomplishments of humankind in the previous millennia, we understand that we don't own the right to define our culture. Almost a thousand years ago, people who lived in a world lit only by fire built St. Denis, Chartres, Notre Dame, Salisbury. Chaucer and Shakespeare lived in a world lit only by fire. So did Columbus. And Thomas Jefferson.

So, all this is to say that it seems to me that life is not about a new smart phone, or a McMansion in a gated community, or a prestigious job. And it isn't about me, me, me! Because really, in a thousand years, what will the difference be between a Blackberry and an I-Phone?