Living With(out) Technology
April 2, 2010
I used to spend time just sitting and thinking. Did you? I’d get a cup of tea, and lounge on the sofa, and stare out the window. All kinds of thoughts would flow through my mind. Soon, I would notice something beautiful – the way light bounced around among leaves blown by a breeze; or the grain of something made of wood; or the graceful arc of a stem on a plant. Colors, patterns, lines.
Today, I did it again. It was hard, tearing myself away from the computer screen, the television, even books and magazines. Some synapse kept firing, sending the command to my body to reach for the remote, or get back to my desk, or at least pick up a book. It was a lot like the one that fires every time I walk past the snack drawer in our kitchen, urging me to have a piece of chocolate. To not respond to those tiny firings is actually painful, like being poked mentally with a pin. I start, and then have to purposefully – not resist, exactly – merely fail to obey.
After awhile a kind of peace began to fill me from my belly up. Eventually it reached my brain, and after that the inertia was all on the side of staying where I was. Certain colors of things became almost tactile, causing a responding warmth in my heart. The way my cat moved, the texture of her fur, mesmerized me. I was not just looking at things as objects outside of me, but receiving them, even in some sense going out to meet them. I felt that I was being nourished through my eyes.
Seeing by gadgets, and knowing the world through them, gives a severely attenuated vision, a thinned and weakened shadow of the wholeness of what is on offer, like seeing with half an eye.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I love this!!! I find it’s very true about technology distracting us from reality and that nagging demand for a remote or mouse to be in hand. When did we lose control of our own minds? This must be what George Orwell meant about black boxes in our living rooms. (1984)
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:28 pm
And there I was trying to listen to voicemail after the service today on the way home and missed your words. For that I am sorry.
April 4th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Wonderful reflection. I am not sure, however, that I agree with your inclusion of books in the category of things that hinder our ability to think deeply or enjoy the wonder of the created order. Maybe they do if the only place you can read a book is inside. Yesterday I went out in the back yard and read in the sunshine and a refreshing cool breeze and a wonderful cup of tea. I was wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed the symphony of the five senses in the created order around me. It also refreshed my understanding of the text I was reading.
Sadly, I couldn’t convince the cat to come outside with me. She prefers the comforts of technology. Ironic…
April 9th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I would like to add stargazing to the list of things that make me contemplative. It is as soothing as looking at the mountains or the beach.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Just wanted to use a bit of technology to let you know I’m thinking of you. Enjoy having your child at home!
June 6th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I remember reading this entry by you, Susan, some time ago. I felt inadequate that I didn’t have anything to reply about or add to your blog. My life was so busy that I never sat down with that cup of tea and just thought or was pulled to the computer. My husband and I have only had the internet at home for a couple of years and I rarely fire it up at home. Then it occured to me that I never spend time just sitting and wondering about the beauty around us. We went out for breakfast a couple of weeks ago and had to wait for a table. I looked out the glass door of the window and noticed how all the leaves of a rather large tree moved in unison when the wind bley threw them. How wonderful i thought. I had just pondered something and it felt good. Now I ponder trees regularly…when I’m at a stop light, out our back door, when waiting for a table in a restaurant, and even at my job. Trees are important to me now and stopping to think about them is nice. Thank you Susan for setting me on the path to thinking about things that aren’t work, jobs, TV, housework, or grocery shopping.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Sharon: Thank you for your comment! I’m so glad to hear you are paying more attention to my friends, the trees. We tend to treat trees as the furniture around us, forgetting what remarkable creatures they are. I think they have much to teach us about our faith.