Yesterday 4-year old Madison Gardner was literally swept off her feet like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. What she will remember most for the rest of her life is one of these? Choose one:

 The natural tendency when we are thrown off balance is to grab for stability with both hands. Madison did not do this; that’s why I choose #5.
 1. Life was free, fun and exciting then.
 2. I was the luckiest little girl in the world.
 3. Nature can be unpredictable.
 4. I am so glad mom was there.
 5. I held equally tight to both the door and my smart phone.
 

Did Madison not let go of her smart phone because she valued the device so much that it competed with her instinct for her safety? Or was she just oblivious of her danger and experienced her surprise flight as fun? This could be the case.
Just look closely as she is jerked off her feet and is suddenly flying through the air fully relaxed without flailing about in her life threatening situation. Her little body appears relaxed and she seems calm as she clings as tightly to the glass door handle in her left hand as the smartphone in her right hand.


What happened to Madison after her ride gives a clue. The video does not show it, but here it is in her Mom’s own words.


"All I hear is "mommm!"," wrote her mom Brittany on Facebook as she posted the video with a sound track of Frank Sinatra singing ‘Come Fly with Me.’ “So I looked back and she's pinned between the house and the glass door. She held on until I took her off the handle, [but] she’s totally OK. She was scared at first then was laughing away at it.”


The door handle was clearly her safe place, even though it was the thing that pulled her (from the wind) in a fast and smooth analog arc to the other side of her house. On the other hand, her smart phone seemed really important to her as well; even at only 4 years old her social media exposure had to be a small circle of friends before this video went viral! It struck me that Madison held onto her smart phone like dear life as if it was her favorite snuggle toy!


I will never forget how upset my own daughters felt when they gave up their favorite fluffy toys to stop sucking their thumbs with them when they were Madison’s age. (I wonder; Does Madison sleeps with her phone?)


Madison will most likely grow up as a fully digital citizen in a completely digitized smart, all hearing, all seeing, all knowing Frictionless Society built on technology that really only “understands and responds” in “on” or “off” binary logic language that is cleverly disguised to sound human.


I wonder; How is a Frictionless Society going to work for humans who were built to exist as free-will “maybe” creatures who have lived in the excluded-middle analog world of fuzzy quantum logic for 2 billion years?


I believe the trend of growing frustration and disharmony in the world today, which has many different faces, may be traced back to subtle discord hidden deep between the analog world we are made of, and the digital world we are building.

Madison may become a bridge between these two worlds.
After all, she did just fine with one hand in each world for a brief exhilarating moment.

GRAY AREA BETWEEN DIGITAL & ANALOG NEXT POST