The Light We Cannot See

We live in loud, tumultuous times.

A lot of what we do and think and say revolves around what we see and hear and believe and parrot on the Internet. I'd say media, but it's social media, not the mainstream media, that captures our attention and the powers that drive things both big and small. For good and ill.

In the opening to his book "All the Light We Cannot See," Anthony Doerr quotes Nazi Germany's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as saying "It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio." But before this turns into a polemic for or against social media and the ills it brings us, allow me to suggest that we, like the listeners to the "radios" in Doerr's tale, should be able to sort the signal from the noise and decide what to do with the information we receive; and decide whether or not the information we have to share is adding to a constructive conversation or is just another bit of flotsam jamming things up.

Sorry. A lot of metaphors there.

I tend to use social media mostly for silliness, because it gives me an outlet and a way to reach other silly people. Those who want to speak of BIG THINGS all the time, or squawk political talking points mostly, are the ones I tend to mute or shy away from completely.

They have their right and their place in the world; I just don't need to hear all of it.

And that doesn't mean I'm not concerned or involved or worried or scared. It just means I want to compartmentalize what I consume and what I say so not every place I go is full of the same old thing.

But back to Doerr and the Nazis.

I'm loving his book. I'm loving how people are shown doing good things in trying times, even at great risk. And I'm understanding how the title of his book ties in with the tale he's telling. Radio is on the same spectrum as light, but it is light we cannot see. And there are characters in this book on all sorts of portions of the spectrum, some in the light, some still unseen, that mean for us good or ill or indifference based on what we do or say or believe.

We know so little of what others think -- we can only see the light they show us. Some of that light we see is ugly, so we shy away from them. That's not altogether healthy, particularly when that light incites us to impose judgments that may or may not be fair, based on the light we cannot see.

That doesn't mean we can't look for warnings, or red flags, or whatever; being aware of those things are essential for survival, both physical and spiritual. But to shun those whose light on topics we care about is of a different shade than what we think it ought to be shuts us off from them, if we let it.

We should tune in to the light we can see and the light we can't. And that ain't easy.