Cargo Cult Redux

Form without substance

Here at Nova Avalon, we've had to come up with a compassionate way of treating our fellow brothers and sisters who are simply incapable of adapting to life in this new reality.  

So we created a village of sorts, a community where these 'special ones' were free to indulge in they're liabilities and techno-addictions to their nano-hearts content, and without causing any threat to the rest of us who were in the process of becoming reacquainted with paradise.

Many of our 'special ones' couldn't have ever imagined a world where they were not fully web-wired, and wi-fied. They had suddenly had the proverbial 'techno-rug' pulled out from under their digital-toes, and the dramatic shift we had incurred in our relationship to technology was just simply too much for them to bear.

There were many though, even among the technologically vulnerable, who were simply beyond hope. For these 'special ones' we established a 'secure area' where they are now free to  construct their own 'technological devices' from assorted stones, twigs, branches and tree bark. 

If it wasn't so sad, I would laugh! To see these folks construct little wooden earpieces out of pine cones and then talk out loud to their fictitious cellular soul-mates, like they had been so used to doing during the time of the great forgetting, in the years leading up to our inevitable rendezvous with destiny, is something to behold!

Their constructions bring back memories of the cargo-cults of post World War Two Polynesia, as they try to replicate the form but not the substance of a technology that had once so dazzled and captured them. Who among us could hold back the laughter the day Joan devised something she called 'Facebark' a social media interface made out of carvings and etchings into birch tree-bark, hmmmmmm?!

Gordon once made himself a 42 inch 'flatscreen' out of wood he had carved from the stump of an old oak tree. His creation was so expertly made, and given his advanced carpentry skills, his pieces are considered head and shoulders above the rest in this 'special community' for their quality and craftsmanship. 

A self Portrait?

Last summer, his handcrafted DVD player, made from a highly polished soapstone, won him 'first prize' at the village arts and crafts fair, and his many talents often grant him privileges to visit outside the perimeter of his 'secure village'. He is often being invited 'over for dinner' by those who recognize his amazing talents, despite the fact that they also feel so very sorry for him. Remember, this is a guy who once made a wooden SUV equipped with a 'fifth wheel'! and it's that 'fifth wheel' design which has now gone on to become one of his personal trademarks.     

Cicely can still be seen in her eternal state of 'RTM' (Rapid Thumb Movement) 'texting' some mythical person(s) using the butt-end of some dried out piece of half eaten cattle corn. 

My friend Maurice has often been seen tapping gently on the side of a sea shell, perhaps trying to get the image he 'sees' on is 'i-Shell'  to shift from vertical to horizontal?  He's still tapping on that thing to this very day… and you know what???  He's still my friend!

Inventive folks these 'special ones', they hold a unique and cherished place in our hearts,  and it is our sworn and sacred duty to care for them until the very end of their days.

Future CT   Village 5, Nova Avalon.   Year 17 P.T.E.