Hmmm, how much of life do we overlook because we’re preoccupied with… getting where we’re going… glancing over our shoulder for who might be chasing us… looking ten steps ahead for what danger might be waiting there?

The Kingsolver quote at the top of this post is my favourite opening paragraph to a novel. I love it for the eloquence of her language, her gift for turning a phrase and how it so elegantly sets the tone for all that follows.

But it also speaks to how much our state of mind, and our presumptions, colour and even mask what we perceive. We are a self-absorbed species. An inordinate amount of our time is devoted to calculating where we stand in relation to each other. Am I falling behind you, getting too far ahead to keep tabs on you or just plain paying attention to the wrong person?

I find myself less and less inclined to expend my brain power calculating my latitude and longitude relative to the other guy. Admittedly, this is partially because I am one of those somewhat peculiar people who prize solitude. Not every waking moment, of
course. But some of my most soul redeeming and insightful experiences come in solitary moments.

As Kingsolver so eloquently points out, solitude as we think of it relates to the absence of other people. I frequently seek out the solitude of a woodland path, a serene meadow or a murmuring creek. I get rather perturbed if a chattering group of hikers disturbs my quiet communion with nature.

But I am far from alone at those moments. I am, in fact, recalibrating my senses to the frequency of other living things. I am most at peace when I am in tune with “the beetle life underfoot”.

Peering through my binoculars at a tiny skipper (think very small butterfly) takes me to a place where the concerns of day to day life fade away. I can become wonderfully engrossed trying to determine if I can detect the pale spot band of a Crossline Skipper or the glassy white spot on the forewing of a Little Glassywing.

The scale of the world around me changes at these moments. Skyscrapers, multi-lane expressways and Wal-Mart’s the size of football fields become blasé. There are an infinite number of small wonders awaiting me that change my perspective.

I am quite certain that my body moves with a different frankness when I embark upon these odysseys into the wonders of a few square feet of meadow. I only wish I could spend much more time in those explorations.

Solitude is really more of a presence than an absence for me. It is a presence I can only discern when I shut out the busyness, worry and self-consciousness of man-made things. Every tiny marvel of nature becomes a metaphor for sanity. I discover wisdom and
reason there which I’m often hard pressed to find in the things of man’s making.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com .

Although I hate to admit it, my memory is becoming rather cranky with age. It decides what it does and does not want to record with a will entirely its own. I can be in the car five minutes from home, telling myself not to forget to stop and pick up milk, and still forget to do it. Notes on the table and in my shirt pocket are exercises in futility.

And yet, I can recall certain moments from months of years past with crystal clarity. Etched in mymemory like it was only yesterday…

A Silvery Blue Butterfly. A beautiful specimen perched so cooperatively on the pine needles at Kortright Centre for Conservation. Not the most striking of butterflies. But etched in memory for… the contrasts of soft blue in its wings and vibrant green in the pine needles it rested upon… the subtle blend of background shadow and foreground sunlight… the subtle markings of its feathery antennae…

A Unicorn Clubtail Dragonfly. Found at the back end of Ken Whellan Resource Management Area on a trail not much used. Not an uncommon sighting. But etched in memory for… Perched so elegantly on a bent stem of grass at the edge of the stream… Intersecting curves of grass stems arching over it as if in worship… Bulging green eyes, clubbed tail and clear wings with fine filaments of black…

A Hickory Hairstreak Butterfly. Awaiting me at Pinery Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron. Etched in memory for… the mere fact it is so seldom seen… the thin but graceful spot band arching across the wings… faint blue spot enclosed by orange chevrons… cluster of broad green leaves like hands bent in prayer…

A Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. One of hundreds on Pelee Island in August. Etched in memory for… the flash of sun-yellow against silky black… graceful perfection of its curving, white fringed wings… the peacefulness of its nonchalant pose at the edge of a woodlot…

These precocious memories will never leave me. They will always be within reach when I need to calm my troubled mind. My memory, it seems, is partial to metaphors. For each of these creatures is an indisputable metaphor for the wonder and beauty that exists in nature’s boundless inventory of small scale miracles. So easily overlooked, but so unforgettable when once we behold them.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for
postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.

I certainly hope not. Don’t get me wrong. Competition is a good thing within reason. It drives us to improve and to strive to reach our potential. It prevents us from becoming complacent.

But, somewhere along the way, the spirit of competition morphed into the spirit of domination. Remember the old saying: It is not whether you win or lose. It is how you play the game. It seems to me it has been reconfigured to be: It is not whether you win or lose. It is how completely you dominate your opponent in the process.

The corporate world is the role model in this regard. It is no longer about simply being profitable. It is about being dominant – about squeezing out your competition altogether or cutting them out of the equation.

Consider the publishing business. The corporate giants Amazon and Apple are working to cut publishing companies out of the business. They are leveraging technology to encourage authors to bypass publishers and publish directly with them. The spin doctor terminology for this wave is “the democratization of publishing” – which is good to a degree but very open to exploitation.

Category-buster stores like Walmart are on the same mission. Keep expanding into more and more areas – clothing, housewares, hardware, groceries, and on and on – amassing buying power as you go along until single category companies can`t match your prices and fall by the wayside.

“Bigger is better” is the new reality. Big box stores are dominating the retail space. If you want to survive, you have to gobble up somebody else.

But it’s not my intention to launch into a rant about the greed of corporate giants. They are just the leading edge of a wave that I perceive. It’s the “stand alone on the top of the mountain” wave that we seem to be caught up in.

Each time I step out the door, I have a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach. The minute my feet hit the street, whether I like it or not, I’m in a race. If I don’t get my elbows out and jostle for position, I’ll be left behind and have to settle for the scraps. Or, even worse, I’ll be trampled and kicked to the curb.

Every day the pace of the race gets a little quicker. Every day the rules of the race get a little more down and dirty. Every day the stakes become higher.

The argument can certainly be made that this is just the “survival of the fittest” principle at work. By this principle, some must fall by the wayside for others to survive and thrive.

It may be naïve. But I refuse to let go of the belief that this is not the way it has to be. There is a choice to be made. I can buy into the prevailing culture, put my head down and barge selfishly ahead. Or I can slow down, smell the flowers and hold out my hand to help my neighbour who is having trouble keeping up.

I can choose to reject the “alone on the top of the mountain” metaphor in favour of the “peace and good will in the valley below” metaphor. The top of the mountain is often a cold, windy and lonely place. The warm breezes and gentle meadows of the valley are much more to my liking.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

~ Follow Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm regularly at this site. Categories: Shifting Winds, Sudden Light, Deep Dive, Songs of Nature, Random Acts of Metaphor. Originating at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 .

~ Or subscribe to my Twitter site (mdyetmetaphor) to receive tweets when blog postings go up. Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com .

Looking out my apartment window just now, I behold an endless pastel blue sky with only a thin wafer of grayish cloud hanging on the skyline. The late afternoon sun, falling at just the right mathematical angle, is rebounding off the windows of the adjacent building like a pair of flaming orbs.

I can convince myself for a wistful moment that it is mid-April and spring is unfolding in its youthful abundance. All of nature is awakening and answering the call to renewed life.

But, alas, the smoke billowing from the rooftop vents is coiling and curling petulantly in the biting winter air. I look down to see the threadbare trees standing naked in their January slumber. A few withered leaves and pine cones dangle from their lifeless limbs – haunting reminders of the autumn that is long past.

The ice cap on the pond is no longer just a delicate skin. It has become glassy and resolute – glaring in the sun inviting the flash of skates if I were so inclined. No hand-in-hand couples are to be found strolling the pathway that winds around it.

There is no snow on the ground yet to soften winter’s edge – though it will doubtless come soon enough. Muted shades of brown, gray and fading green greet the eye. The sun begins to fail by 5:00, extinguished all too abruptly and expiring with little resistance.

There are no children dashing about in the park. No squeals of delight or peals of laughter. No soccer balls daisy-cutting over the grass and through the gardens. The bicycles, skateboards and scooters are packed away for winter’s keeping.

The joy and merriment of Christmas is past. New Year’s celebrations are behind us. We are in winter lockdown. Retreating behind our locked doors and double-paned windows. Hunkering down to wait out the season.

It is the January deep freeze from which there seems to be no release. And yet, as I stand at the window and chronicle the woes of the season, I behold a reprieve.

Frost has formed on the corner of the window. It is an art form with its own intrinsic beauty. Intricate swirls, extravagant flourishes and subtle brush strokes from a hidden hand of wondrous artistry. Crystal patterns, no two quite alike, glitter and sparkle in the last of the day’s sunlight.

I begrudgingly admire this delicate expression of the softer side of winter. It is a metaphor for the beauty that abides in nature even in the icy fingers of January. I can’t help longing for the return of spring. But winter does have its moments.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com

Around this time of year, I begin to get a little bit antsy. It has been a couple of months since the last butterfly or dragonfly retired for the season. The migrating birds have long since vacated our fields and woodlands for warmer southern locales.

Even though winter has been kinder and gentler this year (so far), I am already looking ahead eagerly to the bloom of spring and the abundance of summer. But for now I will have to indulge myself in contemplating some of those marvels of nature that never cease to fascinate me.

… The Artic Tern, an elegant and graceful bird weighing all of four ounces, makes the longest migration of any animal – a 71,000 kilometre trek between Greenland and Antarctica. Researchers estimate that, in its 30 year lifespan, it may log 2.4 million kilometres during migration – equal to three trips to the moon and back.

… Peregrine Falcons claim the honour of the fastest living creature. They reach speeds of as much as 168 miles per hour while catching prey birds in midair.

… Dragonflies are masters of flight. Their four wings can be moved independently – beating up and down in the classical sense or rotating on their own axes like an airplane propeller. They can fly forwards, backwards, hover, fly rapidly straight up or straight down and turn on a dime.

… Dragonflies have the finest vision in the insect world. They possess compound eyes, comprised of as many as 30,000 “simple eyes”, which allow them to detect even the tiniest of movement in the distance.

… Many butterflies can taste with their feet. Why would they want to? It enables them to determine, before they lay their eggs, whether the leaf they are sitting on is suitable to be their caterpillars’ food.

… Butterflies can be speed demons – attaining a flight speed of up to 50 kilometres per hour. But they are cold-blooded and need to bask in the sun to absorb heat before they can fly.

I’ll admit that winter has its own charms. But I’m inclined – aside from brief forays when cabin fever gets the best of me – to hibernate from its chilly grasp. I’ll pass the days pouring over the pages of my field guides to let nature’s metaphors of wonder curb my impatience.

Only 11 weeks until the first day of spring!

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.

I must admit to be woefully uninformed about the so called “2012 Phenomenon”. I stumbled upon it when I was Google surfing for 2012 predictions. As I  understand it, December 21, 2012 marks the end of a 5,125 year cycle in the “Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar” – a
non-repeating calendar used by a number of ancient cultures including, most notably, the Maya.

Various interpretations exist of the significance of the completion of that cycle each with their own prediction of what will happen on December 21, 2012.

The doom and gloom camp asserts that an end-of-the-world catastrophe will occur such as the earth’s collision with a black hole or passing asteroid.

The optimist camp counters with the prediction that we will undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation and enter into a glorious new age of wisdom, peace, love and understanding.

I’m not prepared to jump on either bandwagon just yet. I am, however, inclined to believe that 2012 will be a year of particular significance. I don’t have a crystal ball or a psychic pipeline to the future. But I do have a growing consciousness of change in the air.

Civil unrest is gaining momentum around the world. Angry citizens in one country after another are rising up and saying, to quote fictional newscaster Howard Beale: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Oppressive regimes are falling like dominos.

Mother Nature also seems to be at a boiling point of discontent. Natural disasters are occurring withdisturbing frequency: the Japan tsunami and earthquake, devastating drought in Eastern Africa and flooding in Australia, Brazil and the Philippines to name just a few.

Continuous ripples are cascading through the world economy in response to these turbulent times. It is anyone’s guess where the next financial crisis will catch fire. Economists and other financial experts seem to be about as reliable as the weather forecasters in predicting where things are headed.

So perhaps the “2012 Phenomenon” is closer to fact than fiction. We’re all struggling to adjust to the idea that instability is the new norm and that there is no guarantee of what tomorrow may bring. We might be better off shifting our attention to the notion that we’re on the threshold of a new reality and that we have the ability to influence what that reality will be.

I rather like the way Ellen Goodman, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize Winner, turns the New Year’s metaphor on its head:

“We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.”

It might just be that the shape of the 2012 Phenomenon is ours to decide. We each have the potential to nudge the universe a degree or two in a new direction. If we all resolve to nudge in the same direction, the glorious new age of wisdom, peace, love and understanding can be a reality.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.

No doubt you’re wondering: What in heaven’s name is a Smew? A Smew is a small diving duck in the sawbill family. Normally, they occur only in Eurasia. In the winter they are found in England through central Europe and southern Russia to China and Japan.

However, against the odds, a female Smew has recently appeared in Whitby harbour of Lake Ontario. She is creating quite the stir among local birdwatchers that are flocking (pardon the pun) to Whitby for this once-in-a-lifetime chance to add this species to their Canadian list.

Smews are one of a handful of Eurasian waterfowl known to show up here on rare occasions. North American field guides refer to them as “accidentals”. It is suspected that many of these “accidentals” are aviary or zoo escapees. But no one knows for certain.

I like to think, as improbable as it may be, that this intrepid little duck did make the 3,500 kilometre journey from her homeland. I imagine her hearing a quite whisper that urged her to do something extraordinary. Little Smew, summon your courage and make a transcontinental journey. Mankind needs small wonders now and then to remind it that great things are possible.

An intrepid Smew defying the odds in a minor Christmas miracle – a random act of metaphor to remind us to never stop believing in the improbable. Our most inspired moments happen when we heed the quite whisper and aspire above and beyond the limits of reason.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com .

But looking west in the gap between apartment buildings I can see a corner of the Bramalea City Center parking lot. A steady stream of cars is flowing like a river along the outer road. Inside, no doubt, last minute shoppers are scurrying and jostling like salmon fighting their way upstream to breed.

I’ve completed all my preparations and now have leisure to turn my mind to a few Christmas wishes for this madcap world of ours.

I wish that there was no need for soldiers to spend the holiday season in a foreign land away from their families. I salute them for their willingness to do so and for the sacrifice they are making to protect our freedoms. But I wish we didn’t need them to stand guard on Christmas day. My wish is for a pandemic of peace to break out and spread like wildfire.

I wish that no one had to spend Christmas day at a movie theatre because they have no family with whom to gather round the table. Yes, movie theatres are open on Christmas day. I wish it were not so.

I wish that the automated banking network was not pushed to the limit of its bandwidth. The joy of gift giving and receiving is a blessing. But the millions of dollars that are spent can overshadow that simple joy. I wish that the gift of spending time together was enough.

I wish that there were no people wondering if they will make it through to Christmas before they take their last breath. Cancer haunts the lives of far too many. I wish for a cure for this dreaded disease so none will have to succumb to it.

I wish that I could listen to Christmas songs on the radio and not have to hear how a certain artist makes $400,000 every year just from the royalties of the Christmas song he wrote and recorded. As naïve as it may be, I wish that wealth could be evenly distributed and our worth not measured by dollar increments.

I wish that we could strip away all the distractions, slow down, breath deep and contemplate the realreason for the season. Whatever your religion, or your system of beliefs, I wish that Christmas day could be on the one day of the year that we put aside our differences and celebrate our common humanity.

Christmas metaphors come in many forms. But they are only the window dressing. This Christmas let us rise as one from every corner of the globe and wish for but one thing – brotherly love from ocean to ocean, from continent to continent, from earth to sky and everything in between.

Merry Christmas and God bless.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.

I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled

~ T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Hmmm, when I grow old and wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, and I yearn for freedoms lost, I will find my way to Pelee in the treasure trove of memories I have stored for such a time.

Passing through the gate in the awakening hours of a crisp May morning. Car window down to welcome in the chattering and warbling of the latest wave of birds to make the arduous, nighttime crossing of the lake. The half risen sun over Sanctuary Pond slicing through the lush canopy of trees. Rush of anticipation and the awakening of joy.

Straight on past the Cattail Café, Sleepy Hollow, Black Willow Beach, DeLaurier Homestead and Chinquapin Oak Trial. (These are for later in this day of unbridled self-indulgence.) Out of the car at the parking lot at kilometre 6. A rainbow of warblers already in abundance – Yellow, Black-throated Green, Magnolia, Black and White, Redstart… Is that a Hooded?

The obligatory tram ride to the tip. (No cars beyond this point.) The day count already gathering momentum – industrious woodpeckers, flitting flycatchers, cavorting sparrows and warblers by the bushel. Binoculars at the ready for the first aha! sighting of the day.

The legendary tip where rarities await. Hang back a bit to let the crowd disperse. Straight up the middle boardwalk as the rapture of the day unfolds. Orange splash of an Oriole. Exuberant red of a Tanager. Deep blue of a Bunting. And there – Golden-winged Warbler!

Emerging from the trees, the boardwalk ends. The most southern tip of mainland Canada a full nine kilometres from the gate. Counting off the terns as the sand shifts underfoot – Common, Foresters, could that be a Royal? Scanning the waves for Mergansers – slender, long-bodied, shaggy crests and red spike bills.

Working back down the east beach. The warbler bonanza continues – nondescript Tennessee, sprightly Nashville, regal Black-throated Blue, fire-throat Blackburnian. Overhead an Osprey soars with long, crooked wings half white, half black.

Back onto the tram for the trip back but jumping off at the Woodland Nature Trial. Winding through the wooded swamps. Thrushes by ear – their ethereal fluted notes. The nasal ank ank ank of Nuthatches. Quick
glimpse of a skulking Waterthrush. And there, a Pelee specialty – the glowing yellow of a Prothonotary!

Arriving at Tilden Woods by late morning. Slowing the pace now as the endless treasures of spring Pelee quiet the spirit. Overhead, a Yellow-throated Vireo looks down curiously. A Northern Parula announces its presence with its trademark zeeeeeeeeeee-up. Scanning from the beach brings its own reward – a noble Peregrine.

On the Chinquapin, the beee-bzzzz of the Blue-winged Warbler is almost guaranteed but still a delight. The day list of warblers continues to swell – trilling Pine, striking male Bay-breasted, elusive Blackpoll. Strident tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle of a Carolina Wren.

On to the history-steeped DeLaurier Homestead Trail which always holds a surprise or two. A reclusive Chat working a thicket, a Green Heron dead still only feet away, a gorgeously coloured Cape May, a lone Olive-sided Flycatcher in its telltale perch on a dead tree.

The day winds down with a stroll around the Marsh Boardwalk. Tallying Great Blue Heron, Coot, Swamp Sparrow and Moorhen for the day list. Marsh Wrens pop up for quick look. A Harrier glides out over the cattails.

Pelee is a truly magical place in the burgeoning days of mid-May. Migrating birds of every size, shape and wondrous colour funnel there on route to their breeding grounds. It is a living metaphor of abundance, harmony and the rejuvenating powers of nature.

When I grow old and wear my trousers rolled, and my legs no longer find the strength to carry me beyond my door, I will call upon the treasure trove of Pelee memories to free my spirit from the confines of old age. Ever will it be my land of dreams.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

Follow Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm regularly at this site. Categories: Shifting Winds, Sudden Light, Deep Dive, Songs of Nature, Random Acts of Metaphor. Originating at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2.

Or subscribe to my Twitter site (mdyetmetaphor) to receive tweets when blog postings go up.

Occasionally, I get the urge to take a look ahead at where the world is headed. Truthfully, my reaction to this impulse is usually to reach for some comfort food, hunker down and hope that the urge will go away.

But today I succumbed to the urge and googled “Top Jobs of the Future”. It’s not at all surprising that the top 10 jobs on the list all involve intimate knowledge and skill with technology. We live in a techno crazy world where the power of the keystroke is mind boggling.

It is a bit disconcerting, however, that the top 10 list is dominated by engineers, scientists and technicians. The number 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 spots belong to these
fields.

Electrical / Electronic Engineers and Software Engineers are number two and three on the list. Apparently, our appetite for high tech gadgets, gizmos, games and the like is only going to increase. I can’t help but wonder what percentage of these gadgets will be devoted to giving us creative ways to waste our time.

But number three, four and five on the list are probably the most telling: Nano-tech Engineers & Scientists; Bio-Tech Engineers & Scientists; Robotics Engineers.

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It is part physics, part chemistry, part biology and part science fiction.

Biotechnology involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology and medicine. Think genetic engineering and stem cell research

Robotics, of course, deals with the design, construction, operation and application of robots. It sounds tame enough until you consider that artificial intelligence is part of the equation.

What makes me uncomfortable, when I contemplate these frontiers of science and technology, is that what we are talking about is fiddling with the very building blocks of life. The possibilities are endless – but so too are the risks.

Ironically enough, the metaphor that jumps to mind comes from the far reaches of history and the world of mythology – namely “Pandora’s Box”. I won’t get into the finer details of the myth. Suffice to say that the Gods and mankind came into conflict which resulted in Pandora’s Box being opened. All of its contents (except one) were released – all the evils of the world.

When I contemplate what everyday life might look like 100 years from now, I can’t help but worry that mankind’s forays into the outer reaches of technology might result in a Pandora’s Box scenario. One miscalculation by a well-meaning scientist could unleash a doomsday scenario.

In the myth of Pandora’s Box, the one remaining item that was not released was hope. So let us hold onto the hope for a brighter future where the scientists and engineers are wise enough to not to steal attempt to steal fire from heaven.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary
Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of  Life Journal” aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its Internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To Instructions” in the right sidebar. If you are reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once per week.

Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.