{"id":1540,"date":"2014-05-15T12:29:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2014-05-15T12:33:31","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:33:31","slug":"poem-a-befitting-size-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/15\/poem-a-befitting-size-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: A Befitting Size, That Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starring on the big screen<\/strong>
\nUsed to dominate young dreams<\/strong>
\nSuper-sizing them for mass consumption<\/strong>
\nToday, celluloid immortality miniaturizes<\/strong>
\nSo five minutes ago<\/strong>
\nSmall screens test us<\/strong>
\nAs we flail miserably<\/strong>
\nIn a feudal limbo<\/strong>
\n‘Tween<\/strong>
\nPuffed up images<\/strong>
\nFlickering about<\/strong>
\nAnd atrophied soles<\/strong>
\nGoing nowhere fast<\/strong>
\nNo longer facing<\/strong>
\nA true converse<\/strong>
\nOf penetrating I’s<\/strong>
\nPresent minds<\/strong>
\nAnd supple lips<\/strong>
\nFlush of heart<\/strong>
\nGiven to a musing gesture<\/strong>
\nDeflating kings<\/strong>
\nAnd giving commoners rise<\/strong>
\nSurpassing hands shaking<\/strong>
\nAnd awe that follows<\/strong>
\nNeither settling<\/strong>
\nFor collapsing our highest hopes<\/strong>
\nNor minute fits<\/strong>
\nAs souls meet the street<\/strong>
\nAnd welcoming nature<\/strong>
\nBanishing the might he<\/strong>
\nOf lesser woulds<\/strong>
\nAnd inspiring fresh heirs<\/strong>
\nTo real feat<\/strong>
\nBaring our soles<\/strong>
\nGrounded in realty for all<\/strong>
\nA shared fete <\/strong>
\nA fare commune<\/strong>
\nWear each mourning<\/strong>
\nMet lightly<\/strong>
\nWith a celebration of the hearts<\/strong>
\nNo longer idle worship of images<\/strong>
\nEvery won an original<\/strong>
\nNot merely deference<\/strong>
\nBland tolerance<\/strong>
\nOr thumbs down devolution<\/strong>
\nBut powered by appreciation<\/strong>
\nYou can bank on<\/strong>
\nA currency turning led into goaled<\/strong>
\nA redeeming alchemy<\/strong>
\nThe most handsome ransom<\/strong>
\nFor our ugly whirled<\/strong>
\nA watery swell so grave<\/strong>
\nOr a cowering inferno<\/strong>
\nMything the point<\/strong>
\nWith such hocus pocus<\/strong>
\nAnd uncounted allusions<\/strong>
\nTo awe that would suitor<\/strong>
\nA befitting size<\/strong>
\nThat matters<\/strong>
\nAnd keeping it<\/strong>
\nReel<\/strong>
\nNever having too obsess<\/strong>
\nWhat’s the catch<\/strong><\/p>\n

This poem is a call to more real and human-scale relationships.\u00a0 Social media technology, celebrity, and widespread shallow images of ourselves projected to others is robbing us of better ways of being.\u00a0 We can easily be overwhelmed by images of celebrity, status, and wealth, tempting vainglorious dreams.\u00a0 We can easily feel inadequate and too small by a juggernaut of Photoshopped images and word processed personalities.\u00a0 Humans are best suited to face-to-face relationships.\u00a0 As such real-time, real-world relationships are edged out by other more nominal relationships our humanity and satisfaction suffers.\u00a0 Nobody wants to be multi-tasked, no matter the purported claims of efficiency.\u00a0 Long-term, face-to-face, human relationships better reflect the awesome depth, complexity, and eccentricity of humans.\u00a0 It is by far the best place for healthy intimate relationships to thrive.\u00a0 Such relationships also keep us humble, rooted in reality.\u00a0 I see humility as being right-sized, not too big or too small.\u00a0 Perhaps the greatest threat to humility is technology and institutions which depersonalize human interactions.\u00a0 Powering up through technology and institutions is a powerful temptation to become too big, overpowering human scales with impersonal agency and concentration of power among elites.\u00a0 This is dehumanizing.\u00a0 This creates persistent structural temptations to value things and concepts\/ideologies over actual people.\u00a0 The seductive drive of scaling up power disconnects us from our own humanity and the humanity of others.\u00a0 I suspect that Western civilization is far-flung from any balance between being rooted in healthy, human-scaled relationships and powering up to “get things done.”\u00a0 Further, I suspect that there may be a nearly proportional relationship between getting things<\/em> done and getting humans<\/em> done.\u00a0 May we keep things real and not finish off humans.\u00a0 I kind of like them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starring on the big screen Used to dominate young dreams Super-sizing them for mass consumption Today, celluloid immortality miniaturizes So five minutes ago Small screens test us As we flail miserably In a feudal limbo ‘Tween Puffed up images Flickering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[294,400,573,170,88,538,393,430,108,431,388,305,293,579,620,612,109,438,509,379,658,94,110,491,601,423,406,484,492,529,111,85,383],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-awe","tag-balance","tag-celebrity","tag-consumption","tag-dehumanizing","tag-dream","tag-dreams","tag-efficiency","tag-elite","tag-heart","tag-hope","tag-humanity","tag-humility","tag-image","tag-impersonal","tag-institutions","tag-media","tag-mind","tag-mourning","tag-nature","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-power","tag-present","tag-reality","tag-relationships","tag-status","tag-technology","tag-temptation","tag-time","tag-wealth","tag-western-civilization","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: A Befitting Size, That Matters | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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