Sunday 20 January 2013

40daysbefore40 day 27: i love technology (ahem!) x

cassette players...particularly walkman tape players...complete with the obligatory foam n plastic head phones...all the rage in the 80's! :-)
 
ah bless xx
 
technology...theres no mistaking the effect and of course the huge benefits of the age of technological advances that we inhabit in this day and age...from mobile phones to the internet and a billion other apps, devices and components that go way overhead of this rather traditional gal...i was happy with my walkman...yes the tapes would go all warbly after a while, even winding themselves up in a kinda devilish tantrum at times, but you knew where you were with them...and best of all, and is this even possible today??, who can forget the sheer and utter delight in creating a mix tape for mates, or of receiving one from a boyfriend, his voice included with little affirmations of love on the playlist du jour!
 
i have a love hate relationship to technology...yes without the internet i would not be writing this at all (well maybe in my journal)...as a self employed yogini, its invaluable for advertising my retreats and workshops, my wares if you like, and for discovering, well, kind of anything you could possibly imagine! its all there, or rather here, at the touch of a key...magic? maybe...
 
today i came up against the price you pay for living second nature as your phone bleeps its eternal 'you got a message NOW!'...creating that need to respond, if not immediately, then certainly as soon as...my phone refused to work this morning...turning it off and on (the girls guide to technological failures?!) failing to make a difference...speaking to the kind man at the other end of customer care, only to be informed that all services on my phone had been cut off...it appears that i had exceeded my data limit by, well, alot!...so paying the price, or shall we say penalty for said error, i now have no data or internet access on my, 'are you really smart??' smart phone...its retro time again folks, and i feel vaguely bare with a device that can only serve the menial tasks of texts and calls
 
now i know im being ridiculous...especially as i was probably the last city girl to even have a mobile...glancing suspiciously at the strange metal object that an ex had kindly profferred to me...and then, you know how it is, gone are the days of making plans to meet friends and, well, you just had to turn up!...of arriving home and wondering who the bleeps were that your answer machine had collected and saved for you...a time when we were free, free from the 'NOW!' that all this technology eerily and sinisterly reaps
 
the thing is...when i am away, or on retreat, i never ever miss having my phone on, of its constant anxiety provoking presence...the sense of spaciousness and presence is such a relief!...and then, there i go, swallowed up into its bit silver jaws once more
 
a bit like list making i think...that endless codes of 'to do's'...a complicated mathematical equation that no matter how much you subtract, never becomes zero!...its enough to make me run around all a clutter clutter clutter like a demented chicken...and we wonder why that poor lil creature was crossing the road?? probably to get away from it all!! thats if it even made it across with all that clutter and clucking going on!! anyways, i digress...
 
so, on top of this vow of abstinence, i have spent most of today on the internet, granted doing a lovely task of sending out invites to my beloved family, friends and sparkling folk for my upcoming 40th party...but it took hours...hours!! and i have had enough...yes the irony of writing this to you on here hasnt passed me by...but theres nothing like a good sunday evening rant ;-)
 
so i am going to see what happens if i put technology away for a wee while...my extremist addictive tendencies sweats at this prospect, but this is what has arrived today...and im quite sure that, quite frankly, absolutely nothing is going to happen, no sky will fall down, or world will stop...but what will that mean for me?
 
i guess quiet time...time to think and pray...time to wallow in the bath (yes i am obsessed with baths in the winter months!)...time to hear my body and heart...time to stop and not be so information filled...time to stop nosying into other folks lives with all that talk of dinner eaten, and snow fallen, and what they are watching on tv (which by the way i havent watched for 3 weeks...maybe a lil whilst eating dinner but then hastily its switched off again...not that theres anything wrong with television, its just that, well lets be honest here, who the hell wants to see overweight people with health issues, botched plastic surgery, and police car chasing speeders??! really???!!)
 
ok...so am off to post this on facebook now so you can read about it! (oh the irony ;-)  )...and for at least 24 hours, i will whistle my way down the tumbleweed path marked 'technology free zone'...wish me luck, and if am not back by midnight tomorrow then please, no search parties, maybe i like it just that little bit too much :-)
 
 a manana amigos xxx


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