Iona

On Iona, looking back at Mull.

After passing my defense in 1998, I spent five weeks in the British Isles as a graduation present to myself. One of my favorite bands is an Irish Christian group called Iona, named after an island off the western coast of Scotland. Of course, when I learned where the island was, I rushed off to visit. This evening, I stumbled upon a website that reminded me of it, and decided to share my journal entries from the trip. The visit occurred 13 years ago this past Thursday/Friday. This was one of the top highlights of my entire trip and I hope you can see why just rereading it, I wish I was back there.

Iona is tiny, about three square miles, but it’s historical value is incalculable. St. Columba (aka St. Columcille) was self-exiled from Ireland as penance for being the cause of a battle, and settled on the island and formed a monastery that helped preserve Christianity during the Nordic raids of the mid first millennium. The Book of Kells was created there and many kings are buried, including Duncan, the Scottish king murdered by Macbeth.

Blackbox Lifestyle

Tech types refer to any device that is so highly complex the user can only use it and not service it as a “blackbox.” They are often simple to use but their inner workings are a complete mystery to the user. Much of our American lifestyle is highly dependent upon such blackboxes—so much so that when they malfunction, it is easier and cheaper to throw them away and buy another than to troubleshoot and repair them, even when they cost hundreds of dollars—a concept unthinkable 50 years ago, and a sin 30 years ago. Your cell phone, blu-ray player, and so on are considered disposable by many people.

Many stories in science fiction center around some advanced civilization that has stagnated and is withering away because they are completely dependent upon technology built by their ancestors, but no one remains who understands it or is able to repair it as it wears out.

It has been a concern of mine for many years that our society is moving strongly towards this kind of scenario, and I found out last week that I’m not the only one.