The Real World

I've been cursed, being made to work where I am. As fast as technology moves now, I don't have a sharp appreciation for it all... it goes by that fast. One day not all that far off, we'll probably all have our brains wired into our hand-held PCs at speeds 50 times faster than cable Internet access allows now (well, that’s not really very fast, but I don’t want to think about anything faster than that for a time being).

It's all maddening! Everyday I end up sitting for hours together in front of my PC allocating stupid work to unfortunate people, debugging some stupid sql or writing some document or reading some horrible Apps manuals. And I can't believe I am made for doing this for all these days. I feel no difference between Stephen Hawking and me, besides he really can't move and I don't have time(?) to even think about moving.

I can't remember the last time I just sat down and enjoyed doing-nothing. I think I'm doing everything wrong.

It's time to go a month without computer, e-mails, CD's and DVD's and MP3's, cellphones and pagers. Preferably, away from this place……… away from the city. I say a month because I'll need at least the four weeks to shake off the withdrawals. I want to control my thoughts.

Then take long walks -- notice everything.
Birds, ants, heat, cold, sun, rain, trees...
Remember these things? All of them were
here long before us, long before technology
came along. And guess who will
be gone first?

Read books I've never taken the time to
read before.
Write Journal about myself,
write down who I am, what I believe,
what I want, what I hope for. Pen down
the things I'm afraid of, the things
I'm now doing that I don't want to be
doing, how I can steer myself onto the
path I'd like to be on... instead of the
one that others are carving out for me.

Sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm
hungry, laugh when I'm happy, cry when
I'm sad.

Well, after that month is over and I'll have to head back home to the "Real World" again. I'll take special note of how shocked and overwhelmed I am with all of the noise. That's the noise that I was blind to before, and that most of us are blind to now.

The "Real World" is what lives *behind* all this noise.......... and I'm missing it badly!!!