Progress?

SUN., MAR. 16, 1997, 6:06 AM
FARM, STUDY

There was talk last evening, in a Camaroonian home, about life in that African land and about life in this land when you were growing up. By your country’s dominant standard you have made much “progress” in the 50 to 60 years since your boyhood and youth. So what do I say about this… and why do I have you put “progress” in quotes?

Even at 71 (nearly) you never experienced daily life without electricity, and the light here on your desk was certainly helpful as you began this Teaching. (Your earth has not turned toward the sun so that this need for the light electricity can produce diminishes). Yet I’ll say that life organized around this natural light can be quite worthwhile… though I have no objection to what electricity makes possible. I do say it is overused in your culture, but “progress” almost demands more use.

The automobile was in regular use as you were growing up, and it is interesting to read that the gasoline powered car easily won out over an electric one, because of power and speed. The electric car will not return to prominence in your lifetime now (because of the preference, still, for power and speed), but that sort of “backward progress” eventually will come.

You live in a modern way, by world standards, but not in the super-modern mode that seeks to be dominant in your land. Here in this study have have light, a radio/tape player, a telephone, and an electric typewriter. The source of the heat that brings this room up to 60° (after more than 3 hours) is primitive by your culture’s standards, but is quite adequate, even for a chilly morning. You write this by hand with a ball point pen that has a replaceable ink supply. It is an old, much-used pen, and of this I approve.

I, as Holy Spirit, am not strongly against “progress”, except that I do see it as too dominant in the lives of too many of you Americans… and its “fruits” are so unevenly available among all humans that I see and love. You appreciate the climate here, with its balance of cold and hot. Thus you can be relatively comfortable (comfortable enough) without “modern” heating (except as a backup) and without air conditioning in the summer. Yet you realize that it would be difficult to impossible to have a high quality educational environment at the University without modern heating and air conditioning. (But you do finish up with windows that open!)

When retirement comes you may begin to dabble with a computer. Some oldsters do. Or you may stick with the progress you’ve made, resisting a further electronic future. (Don’t forget the need for more cartridges for this pen. I am quite satisfied with this technology.) Be pleased that you have, here, the “best of both worlds”. You have enough of the “devices” of progress, but you can live relatively simply in quite a natural, rural setting. This is desirable for relatively few of your countrymen and not possible for many who would have this if they could.

At your place in life you should be quite satisfied with the progress you have made and do enjoy. You have not sought “things” as many in your culture do. It shall not be difficult for you to be happy with what you have in these last years. Yet there may be reasons for “moving with the tide”. Just consider, with your spirit, whether it would be progress or “progress”.