I bought a Kindle last week. I can already tell you: it's wonderful! It fits in my purse, unlike a laptop or an iPad, and I can pull it out and read whenever I'm waiting a few minutes for something to start, to arrive, or to finish. I'm already polishing off books at a faster rate than I've done since long-ago vacations when I was a full-time student. I love it, love it, love it!
I proudly showed off my new Kindle the other day to my associate, explaining to him the features, the joys, the immediacy, the handiness of this delightful little piece of technological goodness. He oohed and aahed most gratifyingly, pronouncing it very affordable, wonderfully readable. And then he dropped the comment I've been pondering ever since.
"We just don't give ourselves the freedom to sit quietly anymore."
My immediate reaction was to start giving recent examples of times when I just sit quietly. And I couldn't come up with any. Not any. I'm embarrassed to admit that not even during my devotional time am I sitting quietly. iTunes is playing music, and my laptop is delivering various alerts and serving up all kinds of distractions that don't disappear unless I close my e-mail program and web browser.
My colleague was right, I have realized. I am surrounded by digital technology that keeps my brain busy every moment. Every. Moment.
My phone delivers the time, the weather report, my e-mails, web access, Facebook capability, text messages and my appointment calendar ... all of which are handily at my fingertips when I'm in a committee and the talk isn't keeping up with the speed my brain can take it in, or when people around me are discussing something not immediately relevant to me.
The digital distraction doesn't stop there. I have a digital camera always handy in my purse to document anything from people around me to delectable food at restaurants to pictures meant for blog fodder. With it come the time demands of downloading photos, editing them, and sending them off to people with whom I want to share.
And finally there's the ever-present laptop, one of the first things I open in the morning, one of the last I put away at night. I use it to communicate with people all over my organization and to "Facebook" as a way of keeping in touch with hundreds of old friends, schoolmates and former students. I write blog posts on it and use it to track fellow bloggers' latest posts. I browse the latest news headlines and weather forecasts several times a day. I use my calendar program to send out meeting requests, chat with my Chinese brother in Michigan via Skype (my laptop has a built-in webcam), and write, write, write for all kinds of job-related communications, presentations and publications.
I recently blogged about playing a part in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My character hands Peter Pevensie a sword and shield with the admonition, "They are tools, not toys." As I look through my various digital tools, I think it's true: I use them as tools, most of the time. Tools to accomplish the mission to which I feel called. But I also use them as toys for play. I play with words, play with pictures, play by sampling songs and interesting sites on the internet.
And all of this keeps my mind busy, busy, busy. I do not just sit quietly anymore. Not to rest, not to think, not to observe, not to just be, not to pray as I would like.
This is something to be considered. I hear a voice protesting that something is out of whack, a protest growing louder and louder in my heart.
[to be continued]
It's good to shut it all off sometimes.
ReplyDeleteSuch a good quote! And so true. I've recently taken up reading again (yes, I let it fall to the wayside for a while after college...sad but true) and find that I love it just as much as I used to. I devoured books from the time I taught myself to read at age 4 through high school. Once I got to college all leisure reading ceased and I have only gone in spurts since graduation. At the recommendation of a faculty friend I borrowed a series of several books from her and have made it through five. While I'm not moving through them as quickly as I would like (blogging, Facebooking, working and being a parent all demand my time as well), every time I start I berate myself for not starting earlier in the day so I could have more time to read before bed. One of these days, I keep telling myself, I'll learn. :)
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