do we really need to renovate? do we really need cities?

renovation, like this one downtown, looks and seems palatable.

however, isnt the wave of the future being spaced out while being plugged in?

many of us these days we arent where we seem to be.

we arent even where we are, with most of our eyes fixed on tiny electronic screens, our impassioned texting, or compressed sounds coming through our flimsy earpieces.

buildings and cities indicate a need for personal proximity and sharing. doing art, dining, perhaps go to a jazz club, negotiating, kibbitzing, .........we dont need to be close or touch to do these things anymore.

our cities and food places are inundated by computer links. if we could lick food off our screens, we would.

this reporters wonders if our real lives are not mostly on those screens.

do we need schools, ministers, churches, newspapers, salesmen, or real life teachers? why do we need a symphony other than to give union jobs to musician?

why do we really need to sacrifice to provide a renaissance, other than to provide employment for its officials?

what does this do for valued handshakes, our sense of smell, body language, and the subtlety and intimacy of facial expressions.

are we losing our ability to touch, or even the need, to facebook, ipads(couldnt they have picked a better name?), spacebook, and twitter?

i fear that our lives are destined, if not now, to be spent as cartoon characters rolling with mindless passion on treadmills and aerobic trainers(like hamsters), while plugged in to various entities, with virtual experiences, relationships, and lives.

virtual policians are a subject for another time.

hold the bricks ans mortar, eugene.

just give us our plug-ins and wi-fi, and a big-mac.

we wont notice a thing.

do i lament this?

nah, living in my imagination is much easier.