Unplugged

Unplugged...

Definitions: "To remove a plug from, to free from an obstruction, to disconnect..."

I might add: "To reclaim time - and a healthier relationship to it...To experience the present moment more fully, to dwell in the eternal now..."

Recently, on my vacation - I experienced time "disconnected" from the Internet, from my computer, and other such devices...

Yet, while I walked around the city, observing others engaged in their quotidian routines, I was struck by a legion of souls, walking down city streets, oblivious to their surroundings, obsessively texting messages, checking email, or "surfing the web" on their mobile phones...

Even the woman sitting next to me on the plane - on one of the legs of my flight back home - ignored the dictate given by the flight attendant to turn off her phone after the door of the plane had been closed. Instead, she continued doing stuff on her Blackberry, and I wondered, what in the world could be so important that it could not wait?

I thought of so many conversations overheard, on planes, trains, and city streets, that seemed so vacuous, trite, and bane...

All of sudden, I was more keenly aware of how distracted we have become as a people, and as a culture and society. While technology has brought instant communication, unexpected connections, and has shrunken the world, it has also made us less centered, and less tuned in to the rhythms of nature...

Years ago, William Gibson, the writer of science fiction novels, coined the word "cyberspace," to describe (as Time magazine noted in a recent review), a "digital alter ego of every day reality," created by "connecting a lot of computers together..." I read these words on a plane coming back home, and it caused me to re-examine my near obsession at times, with a need to be constantly connected. And so, I have decided to scale back and limit how much time I spend "online," and allow more time for simply being, for meditation, for introspection, for writing, and for reading the old fashioned way (i.e., books that I can hold in my hand, underline - and even bury my nose in and smell!)

Too much of anything ceases to be a good thing. After observing so many souls tethered to and imprisoned by their devices, I could not help but examine my need for constant connection. I thought of my newest mantra, reminding me very simply, that I am infinite, free - and that all I ever truly need, is inside of me!

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