So now that Lent is over and Easter has come and gone, some thoughts on my fast from media, a limited social media presence, and controlling what audio media I listened to:
1) Media is incredibly hard to escape. It is made a little easier by the fact I have no cable and do not subscribe to any daily or periodical publications, but people still talked.
2) The biggest difference I found (beyond a decreased concern level about events) is completely falling out of the 24 hours news cycle. It is freeing. I imagine in some small way, this is what retirement is like.
3) The social media experiment was not as successful as I had hoped - I need more work there and it was a busy 40 days - but in terms of keeping up with my family (at least), Telegram is far superior to FaceTome if for no other reason it is not filled with all other kinds of posts (see item 1 above).
4) For me, music is most largely driven by how far I have to drive. The less I drive, the less I tend to listen to more modern music except for background noise (for which classical is great). I did not suffer by not listening to it.
5) I need to figure out a more useful way to use this time for thought and meditation. But now I know that I can find it.
Overall, I was very pleased by this experiment. I do not know that I will fully continue in this mode, but it has demonstrated great advantages to me.
Glad to hear it worked well for you!
ReplyDeleteIgnoring the media is not necessarily the best approach, IMHO. I think the best way (for me, at least) is to approach it this way:
ReplyDelete- we know these people hate us. Their owners and our leaders do too.
- we know we will not get a fair shake from them
- we know they want to hurt and humiliate us.
- they don't want to discuss anything. They want you to shut up and listen to your moral and intellectual superiors respectfully.
I don't know if you heard or not, but the rhetoric has stepped up. They openly say they hate us now, and on a few occasions have made tentative exhortations for violence against others. I don't think you have to go over all their rubbish with a magnifying glass... but we really need to start watching them and taking names and remembering faces too. These people are on the verge of becoming very, very dangerous.
Linda, it was definitely the sort of Lenten experience I had hoped for.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very good kind of fast. Spiritually more useful than something like giving up candy.
ReplyDeleteGlen, I certainly do not disagree with your perspective or your approach. I am (painfully) aware of the thin social veneer that tends to cover most of our social interactions any more and that (more and more) they are calling for our heads - perhaps rhetorically now, but undoubtedly in actual physical form in the not so distant future.
ReplyDeletein this sense the tragic loss of life in Sri Lanka has been very telling - people finding they cannot even use the word "Christian" to describe those worshipping in a church on Christianity's most holy day is telling.
Trust me - I have few illusions of the other side. I simply assume they will do whatever they can to destroy us, or at least push us so far to the fringes that we disappear into the twilight. But given the state of society and where it seems to be headed, is living undisturbed on the margins a terrible thing?
Leigh, mine are often hit or miss - in this case, it was a very solid hit. I am thinking of how I can more actively do the same next year.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know, TB. Are the margins viable? If so, then maybe you are correct. My questions are these: should we be allowing them to push us there? Once there, will they leave us alone? Harry Flashman did an excellent post about how out of touch with us they are. He made his point with a movie from the 90’s where this white guy loses his job, gets divorce raped by his wife, and his day gets worse as he moves through his day shooting up a city full of cretins and a-holes. Hollywood produced the show with the idea that the character was a villain... and they were shocked and horrified when the audiences identified with him and regarded him as a hero. As Harry notes, those margins are narrowing.
ReplyDeleteGlen, on the one hand I want to say yes, because many of the people you and I follow actually live this way. That said, should we be allowing the push us there? Possibly not. Does fighting a rearguard action against a philosophy and practice that will eventually collapse of its own accord (although maybe not in my life time)? I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteI have a counter example: In the new excitement of "Let us have someone else to pay for college" currently in vogue in the US, if it does pass, those who "get out" of paying now will eventually be confronted with another group wanting the same treatment - which at that time they will not be willing to give, as they will have something to lose. You will never see a more converted group of fiscal conservatives.
In my view, it is like Atlas Shrugged. The bulk will not or can not learn. All we can do is get out of the way of the avalanche and watch it go by.
But I do agree with Harry as well - the margins are narrowing.