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Bill Gates is on Twitter. I followed him. One of his early tweets linked to “The Gates Notes”. I read some.

And paused, deep in thought.

In my professional life, I’m a technologist and technician. Pediatric heart surgery is among the most technically advanced, evolved and challenging medical specialities.

The Norwood operation for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) reconstructs a new heart from practically one-half that nature provides – and changed what was a congenital heart defect with 99% mortality at one year into one with 75% SURVIVAL at one year in the best centers.

That’s an almost magical turnaround, hitherto only experienced with infectious diseases when therapy against the offending microbe was found (and that lasts until the germ gains resistance to it!)

So, for most of my adult life, I’ve been fascinated by the marvel of technology, and how it can impact so many facets of human life. Bill Gates’ notes extend that feeling to areas I’ve not been particularly interested or informed about earlier.

Yet, at times, technology goes head-on against something far bigger than it.

Spirituality.

The Haiti quake shattered, to our core, the ’security in superiority’ of technology.

It showcased the horrific power and energy in Nature.

It forced us to face up to the reality that, if such a freak accident were to happen even in the most technologically evolved parts of Earth, the consequences would be harsh and terrible.

And it forced a dive into the safe coccoon of spirituality to seek answers and meaning for what happened.

While treating a patient once from the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, I researched the basis for their staunch refusal to accept blood transfusions, even at the cost of risking life. A statement stood out:

“If you weigh eternal damnation against remaining life on earth, a prolongation of existence by a mere 7 or 8 decades may well appear meaningless!”

We, bewitched by the aura of powerful technology, assume we’re “improving things” by enhancing health, education, infrastructure, commerce and science – to prolong existence and improve quality of life.

Yet others, steeped in spiritual atavism, see the ‘real’ world as little more than ‘maya‘ (an illusion), neither worsened or improved by the shenanigans of mortals. Things are perfect, as they are.

At times of horrendous natural disaster, that belief is the one that provides better perspective and background to understand, accept and come to terms with mind numbing loss and devastation.

It is this interesting reconciliation between technology and spirituality that is stretching my imagination and learning lately.

Like all else in life, extremes are seldom true, universally applicable, or even right.

But where is the ‘middle’?

Or is there even one?

(I toyed with an alternative title for this post – “Why do I do what I do?” Do you think that would have been better? Why?)

P.S. – From the Wikipedia page on ‘Maya’:

“Each person, each physical object, from the perspective of eternity is like a brief, disturbed drop of water from an unbounded ocean. The goal of enlightenment is to understand this — more precisely, to experience this: to see intuitively that the distinction between the self and the Universe is a false dichotomy.”

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