Sometimes, I wish I lived in a simpler, quieter time. Like that of Thoreau. Of course, I romanticize this era, where he could discuss & debate politics, life, right & wrong with his good friend Emerson.
I think of a time when the day to day wasn’t complicated. People knew their neighbors, shop keepers & relatives & friends lived close by.
You didn’t have to go to the mall on Sundays. Instead you might take a walk around the pond, visit a neighbor or friend, or go to your relatives to spend the day visiting & then join them for dinner.
But as lovely as all that sounds, knowing what I know and having so many of the creature comforts we do & easy accessibility to media, people & information would be tough to give up.
Imagine a world with no email, texting, hearing the loud person in the restaurant next to you on their phone & including you in on the conversation, like you care. Like they’re even cognizant that you exist. They’re not.
Imagine no computers & no google, Snopes, Politico or Politifact.com or the NY Times not accessible on-line. Imagine no YouTube, CNN, HBO, iPhones, iPads . Hard, isn’t it ?
But none of that stuff calms me or stills my mind. I find no peace in cacophony, rudeness, sharing my lunch with a one sided conversation from the next table or trying to have a conversation with someone while they’re texting. Is the other person really there ? I find it so impersonal, we remove ourselves from our current company, event or, conversation or dinner. We live in a world that creates isolation & often loneliness as much as closing the gap on it. I see social graces, manners & being present with someone bring thrown aside.
So visualize a small house near a village with a pond close by. Lots of looming trees for privacy & shade in summer, relatives & friends close by. Nature is right outside your door. There are no blaring tv’s or radios to drown out the symphonic sound of quiet. No bright lights to mute the sky & rob of it of all those stars.
Okay, so I’d have to give up sone comforts like central heat & a:c, waiting for the mail, the slow kind for any communication beyond the village, no immediate response through text, email or phone. No way to waste my mind in front of 300 channels to choose from & reality tv. It would be candle light & books & people who knew me. No one would be invisible.
I wish I could incorporate the best of both, but I can’t. And when I think about it & if I was really forced to choose, I’d take Thoreau’s world every day. Besides, I would never know what I missing.
aboomersvoice- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
aboomersvoice.wordpress.com
-
aboomersvoice 