Fellow rebels,

The internet already existed when I was born.

At that point though, it was slow and almost useless.

Normal people definitely didn’t use it.

Fast forward to my adolescence and enough people had been clunking around with it that some utility had finally been baked into it.

At about 15, I myself was introduced to this technological force.

I opened a Facebook account and updating my “status” became a habitual ritual.

Since then, it’s always been there. It has allowed me to keep in touch with friends when I moved back and forth between countries.

It’s allowed me to see what became of friends from high school whose lives I’d otherwise never touch.

But it’s done something else, too.

It’s been there to steal my attention away as my son called for me.

It’s been there to give me 800 “friends”, 613 of which I never see or speak to.

It’s been there to put more and more of what I “want” in front of my face via the all-powerful algorithm, and in doing so has likely altered my thinking and therefore the literal trajectory of my life in ways I will never fully grasp.

And in its spare time, the internet has hollowed out the soul of everything.

Everywhere you turn, there is another person telling you to monetize EVERYTHING.

Your passions, your goals, your dreams, your talents, your hobbies…anything can be monetized.

“ANYTHING CAN BE CONTENT!”, they bleat in eerie unison.

But I don’t think I want that anymore.

I think I’d rather just offer a service that has nothing to do with my identity.

I’d like to do it well and be paid for it and let that be that.

And when the work is done I’d like to be able to go home and be myself.

I think I’d like to just be real for once.

I think I’d like to do things simply because I like to do them.

I’d like to play an instrument simply because God gave me a gift to do so.

I’d like to read a book again. Simply because doing so allows me to ponder something that it took someone more than 20 seconds to articulate.

I’d like to write a newsletter and then send it to other people who like to think.

And maybe one day I’ll get to combine all of these things and record a song of my own making that I use as background music for a book reading I send along with the newsletter that I write.

The possibilities are endless when we actually live our lives instead of trying to turn ourselves into a commercial product.

We’re more than that.

We’re eternal souls imbued with the divine spark. Not money making machines.

I forget that too easily.

And when I forget again, I hope you’ll remind me.

More soon.

-- John

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

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God bless.