Cameras are ubiquitous. I cannot speak to the accuracy of those movies in which police piece together a montage of the footage collected from both businesses and the private sector. But it seems like our lives are currently more recorded than when I was riding my banana seat bike in the
sixties.
Dashboard cams, body cameras, and security systems are all rolling, and collecting images of how we behave.
Being watched can make us feel nervous. As a basically safe driver who occasionally exceeds the speed limit, I wonder if some random trap will catch my mistake. I think my car insurance would go down if I could navigate the passwords to a discount program for careful members, but I have never made it through those
obstacles to find out.
Stores have cameras in place to identify shoplifters, which might deter those tendencies. Once we opened a letter from the DMV which included a photograph of our car zooming through a red light. No way to wiggle out of that one.
Our mental travels are likewise being observed, though there is little evidence in terms of lenses.
Someone is watching, not for the purpose of
giving us a ticket, but to help us achieve a safer record of navigating life. One in which we don't crash into people we love.
"Before truth was introduced and united with goodness, it was examined for the innocence it had in it. This idea cannot help astounding people who have no knowledge of the matter. Still, they may want to know that at the time when truth is being introduced into and united with the good in
us, we each undergo a minute examination of a kind that we would be simply unable to believe.
This divine arrangement is carried out by the Lord by means of spirits and angels and is the deepest secret in this world, although it is open knowledge in the next. Anyone of sound reason can see or at least grasp it. This, then, is what examination means." Secrets of Heaven 3110, Emanuel
Swedenborg
