I may write more on this later….or, in one sense I’ve written lots on this over the years. I feel very much like a voice in the wilderness here, crying out again and again to the danger our culture is in. We have lost our way. You know things are bad when you see someone out for a walk with their dog, and they are staring intently into a little screen. The whole of creation is crying out for their attention, and they are captured by a 3″x5″ screen. It’s worse when you see someone doing this on their bicycle. But then the fair rejoinder is “well, Carl, what would you have us do?”
We need to recover the ancient practices.
I wrote about this last week in both postings, but especially the one from last Tuesday on Four Pillars of Community. In particular something simple like hospitality, that ancient practice of opening one’s house to non-family members, is a very ancient practice.
There is more to say here, especially mining into what the various key spiritual practices might be that could be most helpful. But overall, I think, the key is digging into some kind of practice (perhaps NOT spiritual…so maybe quilting or letter-writing or cooking) that forces slowness. Better…something that forces unplugging.
As a people and a culture, we need more silence. We need solitude. We the practice of sitting around a dinner table, in conversation…and no one rushing to leave to accomplish another task (a great error I often make) or looking at some tiny screen. Maybe for you its the practice of letter writing; maybe its gathering friends over every week for bridge or poker.
We need to build an ongoing practice of something that takes us to the place where we turn off the technology distractions. Don’t wait. Create your own practice of space, silence and solitude. Go for a walk…just leave the screen at home.