musings

I've taken to wonder, recently,about our shared enterprise.How much time do I waste watching the ridiculous television set, even if for only Hockey and now Baseball games?Would this time not be better spent playing with my kids,walking the dog, reading a book, listening to Bach or actually speaking with my friends?The contradiction ,of course, is that I truly appreciate 21st century technology , I love trains and planes and the internet and lovely stereos and that I can watch films by Tarkovsky whenever I wish.The flip side,is of course,the dark side.Folks,it seems to me, will always give up some freedom if it mean technological convenience .Cell phones,GPS tracking,wireless internet,the lack of privacy,the intrusion that has become the ordinary. Here is an example. I waited for my wife to come home by subway on day, with the ever loving Delenn at my side, and counted not the people emerging from the subway speaking on cell phones, but those who were not.It was almost 20 to 1.Now, of course, there are myriad reason why, the one that struck me,though was loneliness, a gnawing deep gaping emptiness.{Of course this is not to say that the phones are not handy, can save a life,etc.it is the somewhat larger picture, sans the extreme example used as a common defense upon questioning the reliance upon the phones]How much intimacy we have given up for just a little toy.Well, what do I know? I'll have a cup of tea, crack open a book of poems, listen to Bach St Matthews Passion, and feel content.