The Ink-Pot and the Palette

I think that "golden age" and "pure" thinking is really only possible to someone who has lived all their life in a highly technological urban world. I'm not conscious of ever having thought that poor Mexican villagers (to use your example) were better off than I was: merely that they were somehow "closer to nature," particularly with regard to food. I know better now, but that correction to my thinking has been very recent.

I love the analogy of carving a path. It makes perfect sense to me. Reading your description, I thought: and what if there are better tools than a machete? What if today's world gives us some bulldozers and chainsaws in the form of methods, techniques, groups, communication, maybe even drugs or devices that can speed up the process of building new neural pathways?

That's how I'm viewing these cool tools like Joe's Goals and Livestrong, and even the bathroom scale, and other people's blogs and testimonials like this very metaphor you've provided, and the National Weight Control Registry--literally, mind-changing technologies.

It's an exciting time to be alive. Thanks for a great comment!