Links, what are they? When you go to a web site, links are the little items of information anytime made itself known yet on will take you to another website of similar context. The thing is, with one of these strange and mysterious human minds of our bait that we know so little about, these links if navigated intuitively can take one to places of information you normally would not am. You might start out in the light and result in a black hole. Let me give you an example of a trek I just traveled without really thinking.
The other day I decided looking for a web site about one of my all time favorite musicians, Arlo Guthrie. Arlo Guthrie is a people musician, son of another famous musician Woody Guthrie. When i was a little kid, one of the best activities was to be dark web sites handled by his story/song entitled ‘The Motorcycle Song’. So, I found his personal website via a Google search and it was pretty cool, and extremely positive. Guthrie runs a charity organization and a multi-religious church center where money is raised to help people with illnesses as well as giving less fortunate people a place to hope, meditate or just get off the streets.
So, I’m reading all about Arlo in his biography and there’s a url to his court statement at the famous Chi town Seven court case. Well, as I’m an adolescent guy I had never heard of this case, my curiosity was piqued and I made itself known yet on the link. Next I was reading Arlo’s funny comments about the time he was imprisoned for losing rubbish in an illegal area on Thanksgiving because the dump was closed. Of course if you know about Guthrie you’d know that his famous song ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ was based on this story. I get to the finale of the court transcript and there’s a link for the ‘Famous Trials’ web site that the Chi town Seven trial was a webpage of.
Not thinking, I click the site and start to absent-mindedly scan through all the famous court cases listed. Remember, I was originally searching for my old buddy Arlo, i am just in a world of laws and crime. Well, I come across this crazy looking face: Charles Manson, and for some unknown subconscious reason I click on his court case. I didn’t know much about the guy, but maybe because both my parents are x-hippies and he was from their era…
I am just spending an hour of my time (and there is nothing more valuable than time, except love and peace) reading about the grisly murders of Manson’s Family as his group of devoted followers was called. I didn’t consider myself interested in this kind of evil stuff, and still don’t, as my feeling after the experience was one of distaste, sadness and plain wonder as to how people can do these kinds of negative actions.
In the end, following the absent-minded link trek led me to a place so much dark than where I started. I don’t know if i ever would have spent an hour of my well being reading about Charles Manson otherwise. It’s not my cup of tea you know. I’m into peaceful music, humorous novels, Tai Chi and foreign films. This can be taken as a sign that we must be careful, conscious and alert when we are searching the internet. It is such a huge mass of information, and like things in existence has its dark side as well as its light. Be careful Dorothy, the yellow stone link trek can lead to the incredible witch as well as the wonderful world of Oz.