The popular model for the complete Human Being is Mind/Body/Spirit.
This is, of course, incorrect.
The correct parts of a human being are:
Mind
Spirit
Body machine
You want these parts to be as honed and complete as possible. You want skills and confidence and poise and strength and all the other things that come with the determined Human Being. Lemme give you some examples.
Spirit - You want to be tranquil in the midst of adversity. You want focus and clarity even as the maelstrom that is your life howls around you.
Mind - You want your intellect to devour concepts and pithy cultural observations, pouncing on them and shaking their carcasses till their bones snap.
Body - Deny it, or decry it as shallow and vain, but you want that lean, dense, graceful body. That Comic Book Superhero Template body. You want the easy, smooth, effortless motion of the professional athlete. That's okay, me too.
Machine - Why is this in here? I'll tell you why. It's in here because human beings create machines as extensions of ourselves. We live and die with them, in them, by them. Your home is a machine. It has seals and valves, waste management systems, a water supply, a power network, and for most of us, a data link to the other machines we inhabit. We live inside machines because they are our natural environments.
Are you uncomfortable storing your hopes and dreams inside the machine that is E2? Of course not. It's natural, even comforting. Machines are part of our race; it's the part of us that we build for ourselves.
You write, and you improve the mind (and if you're good/lucky, also the spirit). You exercise and improve the body. You upgrade the house/car/computer to not only improve the machine, but also to reduce the time you have to spend thinking about the machine. A great machine allows you to work through it, and doesn't call attention to itself. Exactly like the Mind and Body.
Allow me to put my money where my mouth is, as they say around these parts.
I created this node because I was pissed off about a comment in the BMW node.
I know, I know. *boggle*
The offender stated, as if putting forth a fact, the following verbiage:
"Older BMW cars are cherished for their durability and styling. Newer BMW cars are basically status symbols."
While the rebuttal of this foul statement is not within the scope of this node (dang!), it did present me with an elegant proof of the human model as put forth.
Please run the following experiment upon yourself, if you happen to be car-less or drive a Transportation Appliance:
- Get to a BMW Dealership
- Sit in the BMW of your choice for 5 full minutes
- Touch everything, scrunch around in the seat, play with the controls
- Drive it, but carefully tune out the salesman
Now, during and after this test several things will happen to you. You'll
tingle. Your breath will quicken. You will experience moving through the world as a human/machine unit. The BMW, being what it is, will couple to your mind and spirit as surely as your body does.
I have another example. On my desk is a cheap 99 cent gel pen. It rocks. Writing with it takes me to the very core of the act of writing. I feel pleasure at the smooth, easy lines and curves that stretch out across the paper. It represents the perfect connective machine that enhances you, but doesn't call attention to itself in the act.
Don't get me wrong, I like Nature.
But don't forget for a moment that the Machine is in Yours.