Opus 2013-233: Dsicernment Watch: Back to Basics

My kids bought me a smart phone.  Often I find it too smart for its own good or only thinking it is smart.  Gradually I am finding certain aspects entertaining if not helpful.  One of those is the Google Maps application which is hooked into the GPS and can give me directions as I drive.  I have used it a few times and on vacation I can see how it might be useful.

I still prefer maps and geographical awareness.  There is a built in weakness in being dependent on technology.  Airplane pilots have compasses, GPS, air traffic controllers and towers.  It certainly gets them where they want to go.  The recent tragedy at San Francisco reminds us that technology cannot always make up for human error.

In the past all you needed to navigate were simple observations and knowledge.  In Southern California I knew that the mountains were always north.  In the morning I knew that if the sun was behind me I was traveling west.  When I was traveling west I knew that if I turned right I would be going north.  You don’t need all that now unless there is a tech failure.  It is fascinating watching my children find their way to places.  Sometimes they make ridiculous detours because they obey the computer.  What is amusing is that they don’t even realize it. 

Science has all kinds of answers but what happens when it fails?  Then we need to fall back on basic knowledge such as which way is north, where are the stars and such. 

In life the advice of the current guru is interesting and maybe fun but what do you do when it fails?  In education they threw out phonics when whole language was the rage.  The good teachers kept teaching phonics in spite of the trend.  When children lost the ability to read everyone went back to basics.  The current welfare craze is destroying entire demographic groups and spreading its damage to others.  Will be learn or remember how to remedy the problem?  Dr. Spock’s advice ruined an entire generation or more.  The list could go on.

We need to keep a foundation on hand of the wisdom of the ages.  When I know the territory and the GPS plays foul, I realize it.  In those cases I ignore the wisdom of the chip.  In life I function from a base.  For me, that is found in the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ.  When I hear something that is too good to be true I know it is false because I have eternal truths at my command.  When something doesn’t seem right I don’t always know what the problem is but I do know what is right and what I just heard ain’t it.

Might I recommend that you look to the same source.

homo unius libri