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When I read Amazon Prime could ship any package to you door the next day. I remembered a couplet from Du Mu:
一騎紅塵妃子笑
A horserider and red dust, the consort laughs
無人知是荔枝來
No one knows the lychee are coming.
Legend has it that consort to the Tang emperor Yang Guifei loved to eat lychee, but Chang 'an (modern day Xi'an) was too far north from where lychees, so Xuanzong sets up a modern day pony express system to relay lychees quickly to the consort.
Other texts of the period also record crops and farmers being trampled on, just so the consort can eat tropical fruit. If she were alive today, she could book any fruit on first class and have it on her doorstep within 24 hours. In fact millions of us can order something from across the world at speeds Tang royalty can only dream of.
I'm reading the book "All Natural" by Nathanael Johnson. In his chapter on sugar, he talks about how the word "sweet" is synonymous to momentary pleasure, not contentment. In chemistry terms, it's the difference between feeling endorphines (content) and dopamine (pleasure). Because consumers can't tell the difference, we equate one with the other.
Du Mu warns us of the impact of one individual's overzealous passion for pleasure. Call me old fashioned, but being able to move items within a day of our desire for pleasure makes be cautious of greed with technology. Not just with solid packages, but the attention we place on material pleasure.
I am reminded of another quote from Du Fu, (don't get this confused with Du Mu):
朱門酒肉臭
At the red gates, the odor of wine and meat
路有凍死骨
On the road frozen dead bones
When we attend to our pleasure, what do we neglect?
Comments? Thoughts?
I think that there is a danger in what technology brings us. I don't remember who, either my aunt or my mom's friend was saying that with technology getting better and better, humans become more obsolete (well the Chiu Chow equivalent of this phrase anyway), which is a scary thought. I definitely appreciate and love all the technology at our fingertips, but am always cautious about becoming overly dependent on it. Even with my iPhone at hand all the time, I don't use it for all it's "smart" features. I never use Siri, I input my own reminders, set my own alarms, etc. Well, anyway I slightly digress...
ReplyDeleteI think our fast paced world has made us all very impatient and demanding. Technology is partially to blame. It's something we need to work on as people; we need to remember that if technology fails, we have to be able to fend for ourselves, without buttons. We need to think outside the box and make do with what we have at times. We need to be able to receive a package a week later while in the meantime continue to live our lives without the contents in that package.