These last few days I have been playing around with various content management systems, making a few sites for friends just to get my feet wet again.  It seemed perplexing at first, but once I got over the learning curve I realize how much easier it is with all the new plugins that were not around when I first started out.  It’s almost like cheating.  What use to be such a pain to get up and running can be done almost effortlessly nowadays.  This is true with many things- especially photography.  Photography has evolved to the point where the original field is now a dinosaur.   I miss the old days when it was more specialized and going into the darkroom was like working with magic.  You had to imagine the outcome. So much work went into one print, dodging and burning, and it was all based on conjecture. Now it’s just given to you.  What you see is what you get.  We are losing out on the surprise, and I am constantly trying to figure out ways of bringing that element back into my life.

In a way, this can relate to the ideas of faith and truth.  I use to memorize quotes I liked and credit those who said it, but I am not as sharp now as I use to be so I will be butchering this quote.  I think it went something like this, “One of the saddest things about the world today is that people search for truth and they find it.”

There’s truth in those words. In our search for truth, we have lost our magic.  Science has killed off the mystery of much of the universe.  When finding the truth is effortless, we have a tendency for taking it for granted. The world is less of a mystery, and we, somehow, become more and more entitled to a point where we are desensitized by technology that we forget just existing is magic.  Science and technology is magic.  We must also remember there is magic in nature, and although plugins make life easier, we must make an effort to plugout.  When we take shortcuts, we lose out on the fundamentals of understanding how those shortcuts work.  When kids plug into the matrix of their consoles or devices, they lose out on a way of play that cannot and should not ever be replaced, one that allows their bodies to move, feel the sunshine, and their brains to use their own imagination.

I will have to return to this blog when I find out who I quoted and what the exact quote was. Google is not my friend right now, and I know I have wrote on this topic before in a journal at home, so I will have to find it there.  I am shocked and relieved that Google does not have all the answers.  Maybe I shouldn’t look for it.  Maybe I should hold onto the mystery and have that be my element of surprise.

Although I would love to do just that, I’m afraid my nature goes against it.  The sad thing about human nature is we can’t just let it go.  We must quench our curiosity.  When something arrives at the tip of our tongues and mind, we must obsess about it until we find it.  When things are difficult, we look for efficiency and shortcuts to make it less difficult.  We want it all.  Mystery and Truth.  Darkrooms and Plugins. Only time will tell if I will actually fix that quote or let this entry rest.