“The Circle”: “1984” for our time

I’m not much of a movie person; I prefer books.  One year, I believe I saw all five movies up for Best Picture, but as I try to find that year, I can’t.  And I rarely like a movie based on a book nearly as well as the book itself.  Quite a few should be neither movie nor book!  🙂

Somewhere I read something that made me pick up “The Circle”, by David Eggers, not my usual mystery/thriller tipple.  I’d like to say I couldn’t put it down.  But I had to.  It was too disturbing:  I could see where it was going and I didn’t like it.

Something old, something new

No, I’m not getting married again.  This is a little something I penned while sitting at a coffee shop in Pasadena earlier this summer, enjoying the ironies of the day (as well as the tea.)

I’m having tea in a large city in a majorly major metropolitan area, having arrived by bicycle in a car-driven society.  I carried in a plastic bag something old (school), a magazine, as well as a notebook (paper kind), in which I’m writing by hand with a pen, and a Kindle with which to also read, as well as a smart (most of the time) phone to use for messages and camera.  I think I’ve spanned more than a few decades!

What old school things do you still embrace in this era of technology?

Step away from the phone.

Last week, two young men came into the tea shop.  They were probably in college, although they didn’t look very old.  They ordered their drinks, one tea and one hot chocolate, then sat near the window.  I don’t recall how long they were there, but as far as I could tell, they spent most of the time hunched over their phones, not interacting with each other at all.

This is a phenomenon I’ve noticed time and time again: this sitting together, not paying attention to the other human or humans but focusing intently on the “others” caught inside that bit of technology.  Coffee shops have become all too often places where people go to be alone together.  It’s something I understand for people who are on their own and simply want to be around other people while they work or read.  I understand if people meet to work together.  And trust me, I understand the urge to check my email, see what’s been posted on Facebook, or check to see who’s liked my blog for the day.  Before smartphones, it was easy to talk and laugh with someone else without distractions.  There was no internet, no siren song luring you to abandon the puny human before you and take off into the outer reaches of the world.

But I implore you.  Don’t be the person who ignores a friend for the internet.  When you spend time with a person in person, spend time with him or her, not simply sitting in the same vicinity.  Look at him, talk to her, let your friend know that you value him by taking some time to care enough to put aside technology to listen. Leave the phone in your purse or pocket; put it face down on the table, off to the side.  Maybe she’ll do the same and you’ll both feel cherished.

I’m challenging you this spring to take the time to really be with people and to step away from the phone! It will be worth it, I promise.

Saturday sayings…the journey

One of the joys of the internet is the ability to find quotes quickly, either by Googling/googling or by stealing them from someone’s blog.  🙂  I believe the quote I’m using today came from The Writing Sisters blog, although I’m not positive.  It fits in perfectly with the current Weekly Photo Challenge, Serenity, or with any discussion of the place of technology, disconnecting for our own good, and so on.  But it directly speaks about travel, whether to a place or through life, and what we lose by the hurrying of our journey, a loss brought about so easily by technology and the general pace of life today.  Take a few moments to really reflect on this and think what you might do in light of what O’Donohue writes.  Then enjoy your Saturday (and Sunday)…slowly and thoughtfully.

Traditionally, a journey was a rhythm of three forces: time, self and space.  Now the digital virus has truncated time and space.  Marooned on each instant, we have forfeited the practice of patience. . .The self has become anxious for what the next instant might bring.  The greed for destination obliterates the journey.

But a great journey needs plenty of time.  It should not be rushed; if it is, your life becomes a kind of abstract package tour devoid of beauty and meaning.  There is such a constant whirr of movement that you never know where you are.  You have no time to give yourself to the present experience.  When you accumulate experiences at such a tempo, everything becomes thin.  Consequently, you become ever more absent from your life and this fosters emptiness that haunts the heart.

When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you.  Moments of beauty begin to brand your days.  When your mind becomes more acquainted with reverence, the light, grace and elegance of beauty find you more frequently.

John O’Donohue,  Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Step away from the devices!

High above the clouds, on my way from 75 F to 7 (or lower), I’m disconnected. Although this is one of the (pay) Wi-Fi flights, I have as usual resorted to a book on Kindle or pen and paper. Besides a dramatic change in temperature, on returning home I’ll experience a dramatic change in internet access as well.

At home, I have internet available constantly and, with my first smart phone, I can be online as much as I like…or as I can stand. (I can’t imagine wanting to read off my phone’s tiny screen and the small “keys” and tri-keyboard make typing onerous for one who excelled in typing.) But on a visit to Arizona, I return, if not to the Stone Age, to at least a quantum leap from an all-day-online-if-I-like world.

My parents not only don’t have internet, they don’t have or use a computer. Neither do they—are you sitting down?—use the ATM or have a smart phone and they favor paying in cash rather than with a credit card. You know what? They get along fine, although Dad has discovered the advantages of a daughter with internet access. Be that as it may, that sort of life is going to get more difficult as things convert to digital.

At home, the siren call of the internet tempts me to take “just one quick look at my (or someone else’s) blog”, “take a peek at Facebook” or send “just one email.” Minutes can morph unnoticed into half an hour or more while the things I really need or want to do go begging for attention.  But while visiting my parents, I have to go to the library or a Starbucks to go online for anything larger than what I want to do on my cell phone. I find myself anxious to get done and get back to relaxing, reading, going to art galleries, seeing the desert, lying in the sun or visiting. I start slipping more easily out of the online world than in, although I go through emails on my phone and delete whenever possible, leaving the ones I want to read or save. I love being able to easily connect with friends, but I find real life taking over more and more.

That’s a good thing.

That’s a break we all need now and then and are less and less likely to get or take. Because these days, you have to take that time back, get off the internet in whatever form, leave your phone behind once in awhile and certainly don’t look at it all the time even when you take it with you.

Talk with someone while in a line.
Look at your spouse when you talk to him or her, rather than at the tiny screen on your phone.
Watch a movie or TV together without being on another device; sit together on the couch.
Go for a walk.
Work a crossword puzzle or do a Sudoku.
Play a game NOT on a device.

There can be real life going on all around you. Disconnect and get back to it.

Just step away from the devices!

Ben Franklin and the America’s Cup

I don’t think Ben Franklin would be at all surprised to see the boats of this year’s America’s Cup, boats which seem no longer like sailboats but like an almost mythical hybrid of water creature and bird, equally at home flying through the water or above it. Ben Franklin admired the outriggers used by the Pacific Islanders, realizing that they were fast and stable.

The America’s Cup boat:

Photo Booth fun

After almost six days of working to get 28 years worth of things packed and ready to move, or tossing them, I’m ready for a bit of fun. Since the Photo Booth app came up in blog conversation a few days ago, I thought I’d play around with it a bit as I sat comatose in my chair in the evening, thinking about what to blog. Here’s what happened when the focus was on my laptop.

Laptop as art with the kaleidoscope:

Friday Fictioneers–2084

Take heart, all ye brave Fictioneers
For Wednesday is finally here.
Look at the prompt.
Create what you want.
Work through the blood, sweat and tears.

One week I’m sure that I heard,
“One hundred words? That’s absurd!
I can’t tell my story
In all of its glory
With that few,” some authors averred.

Now that the deadline is near
Even tho’ that story’s so dear
If you wield the scalpel
Relief will be palpable
And your writing all that much more clear.

(Thanks for the striking picture, Jennifer, and for hosting, Rochelle; everyone else for writing and reading.)

copyright-jennifer-pendergast

Genre:  Science fiction

2084

The searing light felt as if it plumbed the depths of his brain before he went under again.

“More anesthetic! Hurry the download.”

………

The once-a-month headache always emanated from his right eye.  His government-assigned doctor offered no explanation, assuring him the brain scan found nothing abnormal.  More disturbing were the sense of emptiness and the loss of short-term memory the next day; possible side-effects of age, he surmised.  As he proffered his pass at the high-level security gate, he wondered again why he couldn’t forget that jingle from his “Ancient Advertising” class:  “Is it live or is it Memorex?”

**********

For those of you too young to remember Memorex (pun not intended but noted) , here are a couple links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZyFcJcZiaU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhfugTnXJV4

This week I had two stories and couldn’t decide which one I liked better.  I’m posting this one today and  I’ll post the other Thursday, then come back and edit this post so the link is included.  (Here’s the link for story #2: https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/friday-fictioneers-2-the-eyes-have-it/.) If you’d like to read both, wonderful; if you have more than enough other stories to read, I completely understand!  🙂  In the meantime, for stories by other Fictioneers, click on the little blue guy that follows and settle in for some fun.

Pruning

I mentioned to Bill one day that our three lilac bushes needed pruning, then forgot about it.  One memorable day not long after, I drove home and saw that he had pruned them (was, in fact, just finishing)–to about a third of the original size.  I was appalled.  But fortunately, the lilacs came back strong and every spring we see dark purple, lilac, and white blooms, one large bush of each. 

Assault

I was assaulted yesterday at the gas station while attempting to fill the van without having to take out a payday loan.  Exiting into the biting wind, the blare of the outdoor televisions forced its way into my ears, alternately urging me to buy some product I know will kill me (and not even having the courtesy to taste good while doing so) and telling me everything I never wanted to know about “entertainment news.”