Status Update: January 3, 2023

I read this Verge article requesting a return to personal blogging and liked it even as I feel it's unlikely to happen. It goes along with Austin Kleon's exhortation to own your domain and control your content. Good ideas. I like owning things I create even if they're silly little blog posts

Then I thought about how I finally quit (anti)social media. The last one to go was Twitter. Elon's descent into madness scared me straight. It took longer than it should have, addictions and withdrawal are powerful things, but I realized that (anti)social media made my life worse, not better.

I now have more time each day to write, read, and do good things. I lost several hours a day to (anti)social media and my phone. How sad and pathetic that is.

Status Update: feeling more free and engaged, less owned by the corporations.

How you doing?

Telephone In The Other Room

I'm old.

There was going to be more to that thought, but it encapsulates and prefaces what's to follow, so I'll leave it at that.

I'm fifty-four and remember life before smartphones, cell phones, voicemail, and even answering machines. I know the sounds of a busy signal and the endless ringing when someone wasn't home to answer their phone.

I was old enough to drive before seeing my first cell phone in the wild. Old enough to drink before they were becoming even a little common. I was thirty when my wife and I bought one that we barely used. Five years later we each had one and disconnected our landline. For my fortieth birthday in 2008, I received an iPhone.

And all hell broke loose.

My attention fractured and my life increasingly revolves around the slab of glass and plastic usually in my pocket and almost always within reach.

My bet is that your phone is in your hand, pocket, or arm's reach as you read this. If not, leave a comment saying so.

This persistent proximity had me feeling old as I recalled a crucial fact from way back:

Telephones used to be in another room.

Our phone hung in the kitchen. My friend had a phone upstairs too, waiting on a telephone seat in the hallway. There were no phones in the living room, dining room, or den. And on vacations, we used payphone that were a walk or drive away.

Just before sitting in the living room to write this, I parked my phone in the kitchen. As I've been writing, I've thought of no fewer than three things to look up on my phone. Habits are strong, but I'm too lazy to go grab my phone.

Most nights, I leave the phone in the kitchen when I go to bed.

A few evenings ago, while my wife, daughters, and I "watched" a television show, I saw that each of us was staring at our phones. I put my phone in the kitchen and found enough attention to enjoy the show.

Telephones used to be in another room.

I know this makes me sound old, mostly because I am. I'm not suggesting what you should do, but I'm glad to try going back to having a phone that is out of reach. I can still hear if it rings or dings, but with it in another room I feel focused, peaceful, and maybe just a bit younger. Even though I'm old.

One Run Does Not An Enlightenment Make

You go for one slow run and get thinking you're God's own gift. You should write a blog post telling everyone to do as you've done. Get out there! You're enlightened from that one slow run.

Then you remember this is your first run in weeks. You feel your big belly and sore legs. Maybe you're not one to give advice.

You recall too what you've read about mediation. (Read about instead of actually doing meditation.) Fools run through the temple halls shouting about their enlightenment. Monks who have mediated more than half their lives hear the fool, accept him, and return to their breath.

This morning you watched two guys run past your house. They didn't look enlightened. They were just running. One foot and then another.

You had just finished the writing you do every morning. A practice about which you hold few expectations. Just one word and then another. You accept what it gives and try to be worthy of its gifts.

Your run today was just moving through this life. No enlightenment. No need to shout or blog. (Though here you are.) You were just running through the halls of this temple Earth, quietly, following your breath, trying to let go expectations and be present to the gifts your every step delivers.

Enlightenment, if you really need it, is probably both a lifetime of miles ahead and right here already.

Happiness

What makes you happy?

It's not an idle question. I've been thinking on it for days and come up with:

• family
• writing
• work
• coffee
• listening to music

On the flip side, what makes you unhappy?

Seems as important to think of things that make me unhappy and yet I keep doing them. Such as:

• social media
• overeating
• most TV
• staying up late
• waking up late

Where do you put your energy?

I know where to put mine, it's so simple, and yet I struggle.

How do you live a happy life? I really want to know.