Screens

An ice-cold thought snuck up on me the other day while I was reading blogs. "What if life passes me by and I'm just sitting at my computer? And that's my life? That's what I have to show for it! All the blood, sweat, and tears...none of that, only calloused fingers and glazed eyes." I had a moment of silence, followed by panic, and resolved that life ought never be defined by a screen -- any screen -- lest you gamers and sitcom-addicts think you're off the hook.

This thought escalated when I read what Adam Gopnik wrote in Paris to the Moon -- "We love Paris not out of 'nostalgia' but because we love the look of light on things, as opposed to the look of light from things, the world reduced to images radiating from screens." I was suddenly seeing everything through tunnel vision and made an immediate decision that I would no longer default to the Mac. Life is too beautiful for it.

An interesting life requires intentionality, or at the very least an adventurous spirit. Adventure almost certainly is not found sitting at a screen (correct me if I'm wrong). I think we/I sometimes use distractions (screens) to avoid facing up to the real stuff of life. We all have our trenches, our places we feel safe and escape to. Escaping isn't wrong, but timing is everything. Everything. Think about all we're missing out on when our heads are buried! Yikes -- shivers down the spine.

I'm obviously not condoning a screen-free life. That means this fun would be over. But like an old joke, we've gotta know when enough is enough.


p.s. 40 hours a week of screen-staring lulled me into a daze that I couldn't snap out of...even when I left the office. I no longer have a 9 to 5. Praises.