Mar 2016 The Road to Daybreak A Spiritual Journey by Henri J M Nouwen

(Continue from) Technology and Human Relations   Travelling from Paris to Boston made me sharply aware of the contrast between the great advancements in technology and the promitive quality of human relationships. While the most sophisticated machinery took me from Paris to London in one hour and from London to Boston in six hours, the entire trip was clouded by security concerns. More than an hour before the departure of the flight I had to say good-bye to Nathan and Brad, who were with me at Charles de Gaulee Airport in Paris. They were not allowed to be with me while I was checking in my luggage. In London I had to go through countless security checks and a body search and had to identify the luggage that I had asked to be sent directly to Boston. The delays were connected not with technical concerns, but with security problems. It is obviously a good thing that so many precautions are being taken to prevent terrorist attacks, but the fact that every stop of the way you are made aware that someone might try to kill you gives you a sense that the world is a precarious place to live in. The more advanced the method of transportation, the less safe it seems to be transported! Quite a few of my friends have cancelled their vacation plans because of fear of being hijacked, bombed, or attacked on airplanes or in airports. Technology is so far ahead of human relations! There is such a need for new ways for people to be together, to solve conflicts, to work for peace. On the level of human relations, we are still in the Stone Age, thinking that power games and fear tactics will settle our problems. Suicide attacks and military reprisals are such primitive ways to respond to threatening situations. With the technology now at hand, these premitive responses may cause the end of all human life. More than ever it is necessary for people, who can fly to each other from faraway distances within a few hours, to speak to each other about living together in peace. Now it seems that the smaller the physical distance, the larger the moral and spiritual distance. Why do we human beings learn so much, so soon, about technology, and so little, so late, about loving one another? Peter and Jonas welcomed me at Logan International Airport. We were very grateful to be together again safely. Given the violent state of our world, we shouldn't take such reunions for granted.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2016. All rights reserved.