“Have an embrace-the-silence Sunday. Turn off everything. No TV, no radio, no ring tones, no cars. It’ll be good for the soul.”
As we begin the last week of Lent and enter Holy Week, I’m rejoining Tearfund’s Carbon Fast (finally back in sequence after a few DIY days).The Proper of the Day linked to very good NYT article about a writer taking a Sunday “technology sabbatical,” which also captured my own (high) level of tech addiction pretty well. I teach a couple online classes and my students have an assignment due, so I actually won’t be able to go no-tech today. And I think it would make me jumpy and odd any day — which is ample reason to try.
Today’s mitzvah: Can you embrace the silence and turn off technology for a day? A true Simple Sunday? If you succeed (or not!) let us know what it was like.
2 comments:
I think it's a great idea to incorporate this kind of thing into your life on a regular basis. It's not easy for me, but every time I manage to really take a day off from technology and everything else, I always feel better for it.
Have you, by any chance, read "A Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs? It's a great read, funny but deep, and he tackles the idea of really taking a Sabbath day away from email and the rest. Highly recommended, if you haven't checked it out already.
Emily, I haven't read the Jacobs book but it sounds like something I would enjoy a great deal (hard to go wrong with "funny but deep"). I was up late last night working on the couch with my laptop, which has a loose cord connection. I turned at one point and the cord popped out -- the computer was OFF instantaneously. In that moment I felt like I'd emerged from a fog. The house was so peaceful and quiet. It was almost zen-like. I realized I'm always in front of a computer, or working with the TV or radio in the background. I can't remember the last time I was in a space that was truly quiet.
I think you recommended the Jacobs book just in time . . .
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