That phone in your hand will change the world.

Our world is connected like never before.  We get to hear of world events and catastrophes minutes after they happen if not the very moment they occur.  It is the rapidity with which we get news that creates the illusion that the world is going crazy and getting worse.   The world has always been crazy, we just didn't know how crazy.   

 20 years ago, news took hours to reach our color television, 40 years ago it took days to reach our Magnavox black and white television set and 70 years ago, we got our news from a radio as narrated by Edward R. Murrow, sometimes live, sometimes pre-recorded.  Fact is we got used to getting our news at a certain time of day in a certain order, news, sports and weather. Now we have phones that do as much as my first desk top computer did, more even and does it faster and they can take pictures and make movies.  WOW!!!

 Now 'we the people' are watching and reporting on our political leadership.  When we hear a politician say something dumb we record it on our phone and post it on You Tube...as it happens.  In a matter of minutes a careless comment by a clueless, baby kissing politician in Boston will be played on a cell phone in Tokyo, Moscow and Tierra Del Fuego letting everyone with a cell phone listen in on their ignorance.  It is technology that will advance the intellect of our species which will naturally lead to the next stage of our evolution. 

Technology is the fire of our time.  Fire was the tool we used to survive and advance our species once we learned to harness it.  At first I'm sure fire was confusing, painful and scary especially after it took out the tree outside the family cave, you know the one we all used to pee behind, yeah that one.  It was fire that helped our species survive the Ice Age. Had we abandoned fire after the first few mishaps that I'm sure did occur, we'd have ceased to exist as a species much less become the dominant species on the planet.  

The one thing we have yet to harness effectively is our collective knowledge.  It is the phone in your hand that will make that happen. It is the conversations we have everyday in which we exchange ideas person to person that will engage the collective consciousness that will one day change the world into a place we all can live together in peace.  But it will take a collective effort to erase ignorance, bigotry and hatred that feed the divisions and foment war.  Knowledge is the cure for ignorance which feeds hatred and bigotry.  That phone you use and take for granted every day is the very tool that will allow 'you' to become knowledgeable and enlightened to the greatness of our future. 

 Imagine when you had to be a certain place, at a certain time to get enlightened.  You have knowledge and the means to share it in your hand.  Think about that.