Friday, April 01, 2011

The No Phone Afternoon

I walked out one afternoon earlier this week without my mobile phone. I planned to spend the afternoon in reading and sermon prep, and left the office to a place where I could work uninterrupted.  

About five minutes away, I realized I didn't have my phone.  I thought about turning around and getting it, but decided to go "cold turkey" instead.

I had my laptop, since I would be writing, and where I'm working has free WiFi, so emailed my staff to let them know that I didn't have it.  

I feel interestingly free.  No phone. No text messages.  No reminders of appointments or scheduled tasks. Only the interruptions I choose, not the ones imposed on me by it. 

I know we are all in information overload. We know too much.  Information about wars, rumors or wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, and political upheavals taking place around the world land in our readers and tweets and updates within seconds. We know instantly when family members are ill, the moments babies are born and have constant updates with current activities and thoughts.

It's too much. It's just too much. I think it is killing us, alienating us, and separating ourselves from our souls, from our rhythms, and from God.

And, of course, I will post this on my blog in just moment, where it will be picked up by the RSS utility within a second, and within a few moments, will be picked up by Twitter and pushed through to Facebook.

We've really got to do something about this!



1 comment:

Vicki Attaway said...

My father has CNN on the T.v. all day long, even during meals. Admittedly, he is older, and his activity level is low, and he feels the need to stay in touch with the world. On the other hand, he reads lots of novels and likes to play scrabble. There is some kind of blending going on here that fascinates me.

Maybe people need to learn to make smoothies, so to speak, to keep life from becoming so one-sided. Yes, there is a time and a place for the techno-world as well as one for the lighter side of the peace of simplicity and quiet, creative thought, but it's important not to get totally stuck in one.

We should recognize the "realness" of other people. Who actually is that person on the other end of the text message? And who actually is that God who so wants to speak to you...when you have a minute, of course.

I forgot my phone once. I'm with you, Christy. I didn't go back and get it.