Kristy and I saw Crazy Heart last Friday night. After the movie I walked into the bathroom, and there standing at a urinal was a thirty-something year old man peeing and texting. I know Oprah has her push to make texting and driving illegal, but surely something needs to be done about peeing and texting. We have to draw the line somewhere.
I quit texting and driving a few months ago. It’s just not worth it. Kristy and I made a pact. Even today, a stupid college kid almost slammed into the back of my truck. I saw him in my review mirror flying down the lane. I was completely stopped in rush hour traffic. He wasn’t, and he was coming quickly. He had his head cocked to the right and a little down. I could barely make out his thumb moving rapidly on his little black phone. He looked up just as I braced for impact. There was a screech. He stopped in time.
Last week I watched TV and surfed on the Internet for the first time. I’m a late adopter to most things, so we just got wireless in our house, and for some reason TV wasn’t enough. I needed more. I felt dirty afterward, like I crossed some technological morality line. I don’t remember what I was watching, but I guarantee it wasn’t very good if I was interested in surfing. So, why didn’t I turn it off? Why did I let it continue to blab into my brain?
I think in our quest to be connected we actually lose a freedom. We lose the freedom to think.
Today, I was early to a lunch meeting, so I dared a new adventure. I chose to sit there, reading nothing, just thinking. People used to do this all the time, usually in rocking chairs. The people who still do it invent the products we type on and write the books we read. Thinking is one of the few rights and practices that can never be taken from you. It’s our greatest freedom as creatures. Furthermore, if God lives in you, then the desires of your heart, which are processed through your mind, may be the voice of God.
Maybe we should do less that we might think more.
Great post. I agree that thinking is an under-appreciated activity.
I also am a bit behind in the technology realm, but I finally joined Facebook this past week. What a time-stealer that is turning out to be – people I hardly know wanting to be my “friend” and my page covered with comments about things that don’t matter to anyone but the person posting them. I really don’t get it.
But I do like technology – I like the ability to be able to see pictures of my grandchildren learning to walk or of the rivers in Minnesota at flood stage on my kids’ web pages. And I like my cell phone, although I can’t really text – it just takes too long to find the right letters.
But I ramble…