A Love Hate Relationship

When we were kids we’d play in the woods for hours-no one checking-in or calling our cell phones. We were free to climb trees, build forts, follow old footpaths and breathe in the fresh air. We were free to paddle our canoe out over the bay and be lost in the beauty of a day – letting the tides help plan our route. There was a freedom in not being connected – not being on call- not being in touch. That freedom wasn’t just a notion, not just an external whereabouts – it was something you felt within, to your core- like a bird in flight or a fish in the sea - unencumbered, untangled, untethered, free.

We typed our term papers on manual typewriters and if we were lucky, we had erasable bond paper or ‘White-Out’ so we wouldn’t have to start all over again after each mistake. Better yet we took pen and ink to paper and wrote cards and letters that created treasures and keepsakes. There were no pop-ups, no passwords, no scammers- well there was the occasional prank call such as “Is your refrigerator running?”- “Yes” – “Well you better go catch it!” And that is only because there was no caller ID. My life now seems to be filling up with technological frustration and entanglement - something somewhat new to the planet and I’m not so certain that it is very healthy.

If I should ever leave my house without my phone, or even enter a store without it-I feel as if I have left one of my limbs behind. I am so connected that I seem to be losing my inner freedom. I am lost in passwords and permissions and updates. The capacity and ability of my devices is as vast as all of the oceans and I know and utilize about a thimble-full of all of it. And yet all of those waves from what’s left unknown keep lapping against my shore. Their power exceeds my capacity and creates an unrelenting static. And speaking of thimbles I wonder how many kids this day and age could even identify what one is used for. Life itself is changing before our eyes and we are part of this push and pull of the tides.

I saw a photo on Facebook some time ago of a group of high school kids visiting an art gallery and, on the wall, next to them was a magnificent work of art -a masterpiece- and this group of students was sitting on a bench right next to the painting-all looking down on their cell phones. That one photo said so much about where our new priorities lie. It’s as if we are entering a technological twilight zone. Now instead of silent retreats we may stumble upon retreats that require us to leave our cell phones and laptops behind and actually talk to each other.

My own grandfather – not great or great great-grandfather, grew up before the invention of the automobile, the airplane, the TV. Indoor plumbing and electricity weren’t common. He seemed to be OK with it. I think of the changes that he experienced in his life and I realize each generation- each person -lives through a host of changes that seem more cataclysmic than the generation before.

And so here I am at 6 AM typing this blog on my laptop- my cell phone is by my side and I have ritualistically completed my NY Times word games on it. I will sneak out in a moment or two and take photos on my iPhone as I walk through this beautiful village. I often will pull those photos into iMovie and create a video which I might even post on Facebook. If I am feeling really ambitious, I might create some background music on GarageBand and post that to my website or my YouTube channel. While I get ready for the day I might ask ‘Alexa’ to play a favorite song or tell me how many miles it is to Denver. I’ll drive to work while talking to my sister over the car’s Bluetooth system. It certainly has come in handy when I’ve fallen, been lost or needed to make an emergency call. So therein defines this ‘Love/Hate’ relationship. This “I can’t live with it and I can’t live without it’ transition into a brave new world.

I contemplate when or where this high-tech trajectory might end and what technology might be like 100 years from now. I ponder if moving backward might actually help us to move forward into a life that lives and feels and breathes within this human vessel- no wires attached. And yet, for some perhaps preordained reason, I was born into this generation, part of the technological changes and challenges that I can feel so deeply. As once again I am called, and perhaps we are called, to find that balance and the ability to survive without our devices in our back pockets, under the covers or in the public bathroom stall. Perhaps we can all find time to ‘unplug and be free.’