Walking through misty fog this morning, an eerie sight struck me. There was no one in the park. It was 8am and normally such walks deliver a smattering of walkers, joggers, dog runners, and strollers out for fresh air. Today, first of December, the weather was actually quite refreshing, but the leisurely people were conspicuously missing. Admittedly, it had been several weeks since I ventured out at this hour… but something felt different.

Perhaps it’s the holidays — people are too busy for ambles now. Shopping, working early, leaving early, shopping again, planning, writing greetings cards, editing holiday video cards, organizing parties, buying Christmas blend beans and sipping pumpkin spiced lattes. These must dos take time and time is money.

Elephants

And we can’t forget our friendly elephant. Obviously, we’re still in a recession. Layoffs still burn headlines and fill the ears of tight urban circles. Just last week, a friend’s employer let go of three bigwigs with decades of ’seniority’. Like that. Apparently there was a need for restructuring and dismantling of redundant operations. I picture the board seething and lashing out ultimatums, in sadomasochistic fashion — either you cut staff or we cut you — up. This is war and the weak shall perish. This is survival, and people are dying everywhere of fear and hunger and the bad flu. No one denies that.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn urges blend dying with rebirth every second. Until two days ago, decaying leaves carpeted my front yard. Some kind of guilty impulse pricked me outside to rake and scoop up the fallen miracles. I budgeted 20 minutes (with a total allowance for 30 minutes) to enact the messy task. Ninety minutes later I stumbled indoors, gushing at the warm embrace of home.

You may know this, but the weight of wet leaves is awesome. It’s like a hurricane of heaviness. It bestows glacial powers on these fibrous blueprints to suck other organic matter  — like cat poo and slugs — into their fray. I also uncovered a rotting cat food tin and a bouncy ball. The tin I understand was used as a slug tavern, likely by my neighbor, to capture and drown the pests in a soup of yeasty beer. I guess it didn’t work. Some creatures survive at any cost.

Curious Intentions and Bloggers

“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” says the unofficial U.S. postal credo. I love this. It seems apropos here — failure is not an option. Sometimes, this sentiment wins the hearts of fans, but on a bad day it could fuel the antagonism of nations. Either way it’s an echo to our past when solidarity and right action united people into the ‘good’ camp of heroes, angels, and athletes.

Today as 20th Century infrastructure collapses around us, I’m seeing that being heroic is less about being tough and more about being human. Big companies are seeing that, too. Corporate goliaths, bullies to the little guy, can get hammered by bloggers and low comment ratings in a heartbeat. Today anyone can be a hero just by forging a meaningful relationship with those they’ve never met and adding value online. Our heroes now are tweeters, texters, youtubers, and sharers and they drive the latest technology to do their bidding. Hello Rotten Tomatoes.  Thank you Google, TechCrunch and Wikipedia.

Google Roots

I first heard the word “Google” in 1999 at my first job in the Internet field. I was a junior copywriter and I was walking from a meeting with senior colleagues who were lobbing opinion about this new search tool — Google — and how it compared to Ask Jeeves, the hot search du jour. I was enchanted — that name, my god, that name was killer! And I never forgot it. This is the power of branding in the perfect storm — the super-hyped Web kingdom was about to tumble, and Google, in all its simplicity and geeky brilliance, was perfectly poised to scale new worlds.

I like to think of Google as the progenitor of a democratic Web. Its simple, human approach to search and making sense of info paved inroads for wikis and other self-directed adventures. Today, I am posting a WordPress blog entry because Google enamored billions to the power of search and finding one’s own way. That makes me smile. Perhaps at Google right now some new wave of insight is enticing a green entrepreneur to publish her first blog. New ideas, new freedom. The choices are astounding.

Finding a Flip

So my next hurdle is researching, comparing and buying the right Flip camcorder. I’m going to use Google to do this. Then straight to CNET, Amazon, and Wired. Then on to commenters and bloggers for their opinion. The need to self direct my journey is strong — but not without frustration and fatigue. This notion of putting everything at everyone’s fingertips is as empowering as it is isolating.

Store clerks no longer have the answers — these hourly earners with no time to do real product research can only be relied on to pitch sales jumbo to the unenlightened and ring up a “no shipping costs” purchase.

So I’m left to fend for myself. That’s when I turn to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Somebody I know who knows someone I have befriended surely will lead me from the fog to my destiny. Although the path is narrow and the future uncertain, it is the way nature intended.