SOMETIMES WE SHOULD
Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017
We’re not infants needing to be checked every minute, nor frail elderly who need that too.
We are just fine on our own, alone, pausing in quiet, but we haven’t had that for a long time.
When our ship-of-life is becalmed, or run aground in some current-less backwater, we can start things, make things happen, stir something up – start something, create something. In fact, sometimes we’ll start things just to be starting them …
Lights work, we turn them on.
And off.
And water taps.
Expecting technology will serve us reliably – when service fails, when power is off, we take comfort ‘everyone else is off’. Smart people are working hard to restore service.
Totally different feeling invade however when one piece of our own technology equation malfunction.
Isn’t them.
It’s us.
Not system or service provider’s problem – it’s ours.
Our gadget isn’t giving us our dopamine fix each time we check texts or emails, each time we flick channels or study device analytics.
Deer staring into headlights, mystified by non-responsiveness.
And, the other case, when it turns out our device IS working, it’s just silent.
Nobody calls, or comes by to check on us, on it.
Sometimes we should sit in quiet space a while longer. Let ourselves marinate in the juices of our own reality.
Sometimes we should leave the lights off, the computer off, the phone – all of them, OFF. Don’t turn them on to check. I don’t mean ‘assume they aren’t working’. They probably are. Sometimes we should leave them off – not knowing whether they are. Not knowing where we are without them is a valuable exercise. Try it.
Reader feedback:
FROM DARKNESS COMES ENLIGHTENMENT OR MORNING
Good morning, I had your birthday documented and of course it was a holiday yesterday. Hope you had a great day !! , CC, Calgary, AB
Happy Birthday in arrears. Hope you had a fantastic day yesterday!, PW, Calgary, AB
