My Dear Elders,
Your perspective is invaluable. You have lived the utterly unique experience of watching technology reshape not only the environment, but new mindsets and behaviours. I’d not only be grateful for your observational reports, but also for your stories…
My father grew up on a farm in the North of Scotland. Up until the age of 6 his family home was lit by lanterns. There was no television until he turned 9. My dad would run through bee hives, play make-believe sword fights with sticks, and he adored Sam, the ram who was sadly sold at market. I love these stories of times begone. They are a treasure, and I fear the richness found only in togetherness, simplicity and gratitude, will be lost to our children and grandchildren.
I attended someone else’s family gathering last Guy Fawkes Night, only to sit observing two teenage boys consumed by their devices. Do we consume content or have the devices consumed us? Interesting food for thought. My grandparents have passed on now, and I miss them still, after 20 years, but visiting them used to be like visiting sunshine. Now is the time to recognise the harm to family caused by the introduction of the touch screen phone. Have grandparents lost an aspect of their rite of passage because the grandkids are always distracted and not present in a shared version of reality?
Maybe make a new house rule: leave phones at the door kids, it’s time for tea and cake.
If we do not speak up, ‘before’ will be forgotten. Please, help us remember our values, our histories, the various immigrations, how we became who we collectively are, by writing for Faith in Change’s Social Anthology, The Wisdom of The Elders. With the Irish exodus last century sitting as a rich narrative on the maternal side of my family, and an utterly Scottish father on the other, I am always interested in our mixed heritage, not just the history of our kings and queens, the main stories taught to our children in school over the years. We have a chance to write history for ourselves, as a mix of classes, races and religions, as the mishmash of humanity that is, The People of The UK. When I look to my country people, I see only one thing, my neighbours. Let us remind the children that they need one another, for I fear their own technology-shaped identities will be the destruction of community as it once was, as both the divine and nature intended.
With love and gratitude,
Ana Maria Santuario.
p.s. Faith in Change Publishing are launching with 12 Collective Social Anthologies. You may download the letters inviting The People of the UK to write for their health, safety and freedom, here:
© Santuario, Ana Maria (2024). An Invitation to Write, for Faith in Change Publishing, London.
Let us write to save ourselves! In transparency, do we dwell no longer in the shadows? Let the light be found in reality, truth, integrity and respect, for one another, as well as ourselves.
Do you have a letter that you wish to send to the world?
Submissions are open at Faith in Change Publishing, who are creating anthology, after anthology, of UK-focused human interest stories. By claiming our right to our Freedom of Speech in this professional, unguarded, potentially anonymous manner, does the age old tradition of letter writing lend itself to the call for equality, freedom, safety and change?
Collectively, Ana Maria Ltd., The Ana Maria Foundation and Faith in Change Publishing Ltd., work to gather intelligence by embracing the ancient wisdom and power of storytelling. Such powerful data collection can do nothing but provoke change and force forward motion. It is only in the denial and silencing of reality that suffering persists. The foundations have been laid, let us see what we can grow when we work together, for the good of everyone on our soil.