For all that I love the virtual world, there are some things you’ve just got to do in person.
That’s why, instead of sitting down at my computer on Saturday morning and banging out the rough draft of this newsletter as I usually do, I got on a plane with my daughter, Caroline, and flew to my aunt’s wedding in Minneapolis. (I was the flower girl at her first wedding when I was 7, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it.)
The following 24 hours were a blur of parties, dinners, brunches, shopping, amusement parks (Caroline and I made a pit stop at The Mall of the Americas to hang out with my brothers and their kids before we raced to the hotel to throw on our wedding clothes) and, of course, the ceremony itself. Guests came from as far away as Sweden to celebrate the event.
The next day, Caroline and I got back on the plane (two hours delayed, of course!) and finally arrived at our apartment around 9 p.m. We ordered some takeout, then collapsed, completely exhausted.
I’m sure it would have been more convenient if my aunt had held the ceremony on Second Life and we could have sent our avatars instead. Yet even in a world where stepping in and out of a relationship is as easy as changing your profile settings on Facebook, I’m beginning to sense a craving for something real–the kind of physical community that existed before texting and IM-ing took the place of chatting over a cup of coffee.
Oh, Mom! I hear Caroline saying. You’re such a dinosaur.
Well, maybe I am, but I don’t think I’m the only one.
For example, there’s a new book called In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by journalist Michael Pollan, who rails against America’s nutritional industrial complex, which has been poisoning our minds for years with half-baked ideas about what’s good for us. Pollan’s prescription: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It’s No. 56 on Amazon.
Then, last week, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about a 46-year-old billionaire named Nicolas Berggruen who made a fortune in the stock market and is now investing in rice farms in Cambodia, wind farms in Turkey, an ethanol plant in Oregon and skyscrapers in inner cities in poverty-stricken nations. “Now I’m investing in the real world,” he told The Journal. “I’m investing in the ground, in things that will last for generations and improve people’s lives.”
Now, I’ve been in journalism long enough to know that you can’t connect two dots and call it a trend. But I’ve felt the backlash coming for a while. Now that the housing bubble has burst, the dollar has cratered and the price of gas has topped $4 a gallon, a lot of smart people have begun asking themselves whether the boom times and productivity gains of the last 10 years were really just an illusion financed with cheap goods and consumer credit.
As the British architect who sat next to me on the flight to London asked a few months ago when I took my daughters there for spring vacation, “What does America make any more?”
I didn’t really have an answer. The truth is that we Americans, for all our fabled ingenuity, have spent the past decade shuffling assets back and forth and living well beyond our means. And despite the fact that technology has given us more ways to communicate than ever before, we’re more disconnected than ever.
The good news is that skyrocketing oil and commodities prices are now giving us the kick in the butt we’ve been waiting for. Smart money that once went into private equity, real estate and hedge funds in search of easy profits is now pouring into “green” technology and alternative-energy solutions. I’m sure we’ll also figure out a way to grow more food more cost-effectively with less land and fertilizer. The net effect of all this innovation will be to bring up the standard of living worldwide so that, in the future, no single country will gain at the expense of others.
My prescription: Build something. Build it for a reason. Build it with people you enjoy building it with.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Time to Get Real”
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May 21st, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Outstanding. There’s just one thing. No matter what you do or want to do or plan to do, no matter how much good it does for others, no one cares. You MUST be able to go it on your own without depending on others for “fuel”.
You could take a second job and save enough money to build a school for orphans in Africa, but no matter how many articles like this you read, no matter how good they sound, no matter how much attention articles like this get, you are on your own.
No one will help you unless you pay them. And your friends and family will not care, either. Just make sure you have enough juice in your own heart before you begin.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:40 am
I think the article was well written. Steve doesn’t sound very convinced. We can only do so much. If you believe people don’t care; they won’t. Apparently the kid who’s investing in farms and ethanol cares. There’s so many people out there who loves causes to join because they care and they want to help. Create a cause and rally good people around and i believe you will see that people do care and will want to help you. It can be your own cause also. Thanks again for the great article. I care for elderly clients in my board and care facility and i don’t make a dime at this time. I’m in the red and still i persist; because i reallly care and believe in what i’m doing for these elderly clients. My pay will come in due time.
Take care,
Pm