Life Intervenes

More attention seems to be focused on the fact that people allow themselves to be distracted by mobile devices. I am glad to hear this!

Distraction is a choice. Most of mobile devices are made to take messages, to pause, to stop, to turn off. There is no need for them to interrupt more important things in your life. And I am talking about things like:  paying attention to bodily needs and functions, being with your children, your elderly, your friends and significant others, engaging in solitary thought or mutual conversation, experiencing quiet or rest.

Distraction is a choice.

Many people have become obsessed with their distractions. Perhaps too many people have.

The question I would ask is this: are you fully alive when you are experiencing your technology, or is your technological conversation being made at the expense of other life aspects that may be more necessary, more engaging, more fulfilling and more healthy? What are you shutting yourself away from, when you choose distraction?

I know that there is a via media with regard to electronic media. I also know that people have been trained to purchase all the latest gadgetry, without being trained to socially conscious and respectful ways of using the apps and features, without training on how to discover -- or even that it is necessary to find -- a via media for their electronic usage.

People talk and talk and talk. It's a free country; you can talk if you want to. Blah, blah, blah. People talk about privacy, but they constantly give it up in public places. I hear about the infidelities and peccadilloes of many people I do not know (many I would not want to know, after hearing some of the stories) while I am with my family or even alone. Where do I hear these things? At the grocery store, the farmers market, the bank, the post office, the library, coffee shops, restaurants. The conversations are all one-sided, that is, I hear what the person is saying into the phone, but I can't hear the replies. I am glad of this. I don't want to know! I don't want to hear private information of others. It is not as if I am eavesdropping; no one can help overhearing the indiscreet commentary of others. When people talk face to face, voices modulate to make discretion possible. When people talk on cell phones, they battle with dropped signals and various levels of sound quality--this is seldom a recipe for discretion. Indiscreet behavior is modeled to children and other adults constantly.

And this is the point. Discretion. People have forgotten what that is. People have forgotten that even though thoughts run through your head, you don't have to speak all those words. People have forgotten that private conversations are really only those that are discreet, and by that I mean unheard by the public. People have forgotten that discretion is a useful social tool, perhaps more useful than all the electronic devices we have to "be connected" with.

But this is not the only problem. Our communication becomes evermore opaque and indirect.

Do we tend to leave messages, rather than speak to someone face to face?

Do we have email conferences, rather than speak to a primary person over the phone and disseminate a formulated plan for approval? I have to say, it is exhausting to deal with 30 to 50 emails, just to find out if 5 people can meet to discuss something.

Do we use public information forums as a place to rant our impotent rage against the things that irritate us or make us afraid? Does this solve our problem, or does it merely become a pathology?

Do we use our electronic tools as firewalls toward avoidance?

I am asking these questions because I want to know.

I live in what is laughingly referred to as the first-world, and it becomes less civilized, less willing to engage in true discourse, less democratic as the days increase.

If there is one thing I know, it is this:  life intervenes. Your socioeconomic status and the amount or quality of electronic equipment you own doesn't mean a hill of beans when that happens. Your distractions will likely have no say, hold no sway when life intervenes, though they might be of some nominal assistance, if used correctly.

Are you ready? Is any of us ready?

Trust me: your phone, your computer and your peripherals will all be waiting for you when you return from the intervention.

Borrowing

Spring cleaning:
an exercise in wiping away
the dust and tears,
the petty futilities
of talk that says nothing
and acts that do nothing;
so many things
you pay someone to do
you end up doing yourself--
so why pay?

Borrowing time,
always borrowing,
to think, to dream, to write, to sing,
to watch the children grow
(they won't be small for long);
I don't want to miss
my second childhood,
to feel again the growing pains
and all the other hurts
of being in a new world.

Borrowing youth--
time away from
dishes and dusting,
cooking and cleaning,
sweeping and sifting,
folding and scolding;
the sun and breeze
feel different now
than the first time
I sneezed my way through.

All borrowed,
all of this life,
this incomparable,
incomprehensible life,
this experiential being,
hopefully not interest-free;
we can only hope
to reduce our debt
by loving each day,
at peril of dust and tears.

© 2012 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Rapid Transit

It was all he said it would be,
just ten years too late
and a hundred miles short;
he was never able to visit that way.

It was a lot of talk,
from one body to another,
a ploy to earn public trust
and then take the taxes.

All for the public good, they said,
but some pockets were lined
with that hundred miles of track
my grandpa never got to ride.

© 2012 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Jack. He studied law, but preferred to live what he taught himself:  electronics and jazz piano. He, as many of his and surrounding generations, had bought the product branded as "progress"; he had high hopes for a future filled with the closeness that the much imagined electronic-age could offer. He did not live to see the computer-age go mainstream; when he died, the dial phone and manual typewriter were the main forms for communication, in addition to the radio waves he surfed during his career and television. He did not live to benefit from the aging electronic-rail system that by now has carried millions of others under the San Francisco Bay, to and from communities all around the Bay Area. The idea had been born in the late 1940s, but the dream was not realized until the early 1970s, due to political stalls and money "shortages". Now, so many people take the system for granted; even though the system continues to expand it is no longer the marvel that it was when it first opened. When, in 1973, I traveled under the bay for the first time, I thought of Jack, and wished he was with me. I know he would have held my hand with the same ageless excitement I felt. 

To Free The Soul

Open wide the gates,
filling the vast interior
with whatever inspirations
are eager to be
and be beyond.

Embrace equally the visible
as well as the invisible,
so the song of You
that loves to fly
will be multidimensional.

Digest every lesson
in your composition,
reaching for what is good
of all available beauty;
this makes harmony inevitable.

They say "leave no trace",
but I say "carry your song,
deliver it often and long";
transition once complete,
dawn will glow of your smiling face.

© 2012 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Mobility Under The Influence of Distraction

Perhaps this is less true about walking, than it is about traversing on wheels (of some sort or other), but why doesn't it occur to anyone that there is a certain amount of focus required?

I see people doing as many things as they possibly can while they walk, pedal, scoot or, worst of all, drive.

Is it necessary to be distracted while mobile? Is it productive?

It is certainly not mindful. And the lack of awareness actually tends toward thoughtlessness and self-centeredness.

Now, this is not to be confused with or mistaken for someone who goes for a walk and gets lost in thought that might or might not seem aimless.

In one case, the mind is engaged; in the other the mind is not engaged. Can you discern which is the engaged mind and which is not? And what does that actually mean?

I claim that the cellphone texters and gabbers are engaged, but distracted. When these individuals are so focused on their handheld devices that they cannot see traffic lights, stop signs, other pedestrians, flowers, trees, telephone poles, mailboxes or cars barreling into their path with legal right of way, I think that they are lacking in mindfulness, are thoughtless and self-centered.

This is different than the person who walks, unencumbered by electronic accessories, lost in thought. This person is also engaged, though perhaps not focused. This person is thoughtful, this person is aware of the surroundings. It is very possible this person is solving a problem, meditating or otherwise creating.

Which pedestrian is more likely to be injured by an oncoming motor vehicle?

Is any of the text or gab worth your life? Is it producing that great work of art that will be spoken of a hundred years from now? Is it raising the Gross National Product? In short, does it accomplish anything of significance?

blah, blah, blah

        babble, babble, babble

bah, bah, black sheep,

        have you any wool?

[Don't answer.]

        3 bags full...........

Bull!

So, here is my PSA for today: Put the gizmo away, look around and mind yourself!

Groupon, Coupon, or Poupon: Super-Sizing, Discounts and Our Twisted Notions of Value

I live in a small town that has a Parent’s Network List Serv. Being on a list serv like this is a wonderful way to find out things by email. For example, I found out that there has been a sharp increase in stolen vehicles in recent weeks, and what neighborhoods have been hit. Dogs manage to escape from their yards at unusual rates; the nice thing is, if you are on the network and you have seen the announcement, then later spot the dog (while out and about) you can do a rescue and be a material part of the happy ending.

Today, one of the members of the network posted about Groupon “deals.” She had seen one for the local theater, and thought about using it, until she looked at the limitations (can’t use on weekends and can’t use in first three days of a new screening, as well as some others). What it boiled down to was there was not that much in the way of savings and these savings could not be had at a times that would work for her and her family, and so it was hardly with the effort to use.

The internet has to earn its keep to an extent more than social networking and electronic gaming, and the primary way is through advertisements and offers, such as Groupon. Most of the time, these offers are for things, events or services I would never actually be interested in, and that has made me wonder how many people actually avail themselves of such offers. If offers are of a type that no one would use, there is really no sacrifice actually being put forward by the business making the offer—so the Groupon is not really a discount coupon, just a cheap way of making yet another advertisement for the business. Either that, or the offers of discounts are not really discounts, at all, as the critical thinker discovered when she thought about the theater Groupon.

Whether or not what I have just said is true, I think the more important issue is the systematic psychological training of the public toward a certain slants on “value”; namely (1) no one should pay full value for something or (2) it is better to get more for the money you do pay because more is better. So, this is why the pizza joint offers free breadsticks with your pizza order; you get more dough for your dough… Of course, for everything that is really important, we are forced to pay what we are told is full value; when was the last time you saw discounted offers on medical, dental, veterinary, banking, investment or accounting services? Conversely, since when did medical, dental, veterinary, banking, investing or accounting services get super-sized?

The societal trend toward “devaluing” almost everything has ultimately made it difficult (or even impossible) for the average person to receive decent wages or have health coverage or be accorded basic dignity and respect. This devaluation has extended so deeply into, for example, the realm of education that the entire system is being destroyed. The need to make a profit comes before the need to care about or for people. Conversely, the trend of demanding more for less has promoted all that is unhealthy and unsustainable; all you get is junk (junk food, cheap plastic toys, watered down drinks, flimsy products and incentive gifts that go to landfill); this is also a devaluation.

It is not such a huge leap to say that people have come to respect stuff more than people. I found a colleague recently expressing shame that he didn’t have an iPhone. I was appalled that a person would use stuff as a yardstick of self-worth. I can only hope that this highly intelligent and talented man was joking when he made the comment…

It should be no surprise to anyone that a public that says “I want more for less” is also a public that says “no fees; no taxes.” The meta-message is “we do not value ______ [fill in the blank] enough to contribute as a community to keep ______ available so that everyone can enjoy or otherwise benefit from it.”

Disturbingly, you could fit the word  “people” in those blanks, and if you do, it gives one additional food for serious thought about business trends and value. Particularly since the biggest businesses have been at least partially subsidized (both visibly and not so visibly) by our tax dollars for generations, and most people who say “no fees; no taxes” have likewise, each and every one, benefited from at least one, if not dozens of, publicly funded programs.

I like to find deals when it makes sense to do so, but I also love our public libraries, our parks, our vibrant arts programs and museums... I don't mind paying a few cents more for the French mustard I like, and I don't mind paying taxes.

More importantly, I value people, and I wish everyone did.

Involuntary Controls

Golden strands of light glide

off the salty soup of the sea;
while birds revel in flight,
calling out hellos to me,
wildflowers reach out to touch.

I look out from my thoughts,
these distractions welcome.

As I walk bayside along,
I am reminded of the sun,
of wild grasses and birds,
of sand and sea, of joys
that cannot be measured
by worth or priority, but
just because they are;
here I am among them
with no appropriate response.

This is all free, in a way
that I am not, nor can ever be;
choose my way as I will,
this parallel dimension
will tolerate my presence,
but not be fed by my music.

I now see our world,
of unmeshed constructs
and unleashed powers,
as an untamed world apart.

© 2012 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

(Reflections for Earth Day)