City Lights

Despite this blog's title, I don't live in Seattle. More like 45 minutes south. Sue me for false advertising if you want. Tomorrow, however, I'm spending the day in the big city. It's 11pm right now and I plan to leave at 6am to get the Early Bird parking specials. Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

For once, I'm going to Seattle without any agenda. I am just going to wander through whatever streets and doors I feel like. It's good practice for Europe, besides a chance to actually get to know the city I've admired from afar.

Driving up I-5 and coming upon the Seattle skyline at night, for me, feels like that moment in The Return of the King when Gandalf and Pippin ride up and see the city of Minas Tirith for the first time. There's a kind of beauty of lights and towers that crowns and complements even natural beauty.

Cities make me feel alive and connected to something bigger than myself. For someone who definitely gets trapped in her own head, that's a very good feeling. Tonight, interestingly, I ran across this passage:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 5:14-16

How often have I lived under a basket, peeping out only when I know other lights are around. Or hid out of fear that when the basket is removed, there won't be any light.

It only comes from one city.

"There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo."

It sucks being careful with personal information on the internet. I wish I could tell the whole story here, but let's just say for the last week I've been facing potential identity theft.

Those fears were (mostly) put to rest today by an anonymous person who returned the missing item. There are still questions as to what happened. But overall I am wiser for this experience -- and very grateful. Not only to whoever returned it, but to the friends and family who prayed.

God does hear. And he does have my back.

Sometimes I forget.

Connection Lost

In his book Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, Lee Siegel attempts to expose the dark side of the internet. I found most of the arguments less than compelling -- for instance that excellence and originality are sacrificed for popularity. That's always been the case.

Then he started talking about porn.

"The consummate vicarious endeavour, it thrives on and guarantees anonymity. Pornography transfigures other people into instruments of your will . . . you can mentally manipulate them without fear of rejection or reprisal."

Fair enough, but then he says:

"Pornography and technology are joined at the hip. They both transform the reality outside your head into means whose sole end is convenience." "Technology is a blessing . . . but it will not lead you to other people as finalities, as ends in themselves existing outside your needs and desires."

Through technology, he argues, the world shrinks down to just one person: you. So when you chat online, or read a Facebook profile (or blog), are you interacting with a real person? Or does the detachment of the internet allow you to see whatever you want?

But really, who needs the internet's help to do that? It's hard to think of a time I've treated someone as an end in themselves. Perhaps the internet just reveals the essential problem of "being human" after all.