late night ramblings: a society too big for its britches

So despite the fact that technology has always been an integral part of my life {thanks mainly to the generation I was born into}, I still have my days of sighing "Woe to you, internet. You devilish can of worms. You, dear one, have spurred on wayyyy too much, too soon."

Yes, yes, the internet brought about the information age {every answer you could possibly need at the touch of your fingertips!}, a better chance at equalizing education standards across the country {one day kids born into poverty could be smarter than those well to-do kids in the northeast}, & just plain ole curiosity {why does the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain?}. 

BUT, as usual, the internet came before its time & with it came all sorts of new (albeit, late-blooming) issues: hazy/nonexistent governing laws, the slow death of brick & mortar stores, the noticeably missing taxes that would have come from the brick & mortar stores, & the inability to understand any sort of spelling/grammar rules {we can all act like e.e. cummings and never capitalize any words ever again! look at me using these fancy brackets rather than using parentheses- muahahaha take THAT MLA}. 

Surprisingly, however, my biggest issue with the internet is something much less tangible: its ability to redefine standards for generations to come {my second is spelling errors/spawn of abbreviations born from the instant messaging days, but that's beside the point here}. The big bad wolf has tricked us all into redefining the phrase "instant gratification." We now seek a deeper relationship with our iPhones & computers than we do with the company of friends or family. In fact, my dad directed me to this article in which the writer fully expected all communications to take place via text/twitter... even conversations with his parents/sister (to the extent that his father called & left multiple voicemails, and the writer refused to call him back. His father eventually heard the new standard of communication via the writer's sister and now the family mostly talks on twitter). I wish I could tell you that I was kidding, but I'm not...

This instaworld that we all live in & conquer is going to our heads, folks. We (I'm included, don't worry) would rather wish a person a "happy birthday" on a facebook wall than send a card. Speaking of cards, we've pretty much abandoned the whole postal system for our germ-covered battery-powered phones. Oh, Gutenberg! And the whole reading a book thing? Yeah, that's a dying art, too {sigh}. All for what? Instant gratification.

We, humans, expect everything NOW. We're all turning into little versions of Veruca Salt from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We can't be bothered with talking in person or on the phone anymore, gotta text! We can't waste time going to a {gasp} bookstore, must purchase kindle versions. Psh, why buy a whole album when we can buy the two songs that we actually like? Our little instant gratifications are running a lot of our little American-run businesses straight into the ground, and we don't even care. Because we wanted it in that exact second, & we got it. And we're building our own little kingdoms and keeping everyone & everything else out.

And for the daily double, this information age of ours doesn't have an off button. It goes 24/7. It runs during family dinners, last minute cramming study sessions, & even during friend hang-out times. We think that because our connectivity to this magical world of internet & communication is never ceasing, that we should use it unceasingly. We no longer walk on the street or drive a car just to walk or to drive. We talk on our phones, we text, we write ourselves memos, emails, blog posts, we read BREAKING NEWS tweets. We are our own little PR reps constantly tethered to a coded world, rather than the natural world, because we can't miss anything. And it never stops. We've created a monster & it's turning us into monsters, too. We're slowly constructing walls brick by brick around ourselves that isolate us from the humanity we once knew.

We have come to the assumption that our time is terribly terribly important. And it is, don't get me wrong, but what priority level are we really classifying our time? My time is not so important to forget to say please or thank you, to ask people how they are, or to even hold the door for a stranger. My time is not so important that I can't move on the sidewalk to let someone pass me or smile & talk with the person ringing up my groceries. My time is not so important that I won't help a kid enter the metro station using his fare card or give a lost driver directions around our neighborhood {I'm a southerner, old habits die hard, thank goodness}. 

My time is not so important to forget that I am a child of my dear King & that my time here is supposed to be spent obeying and praising Him, not mindlessly following the world. I don't want to lock myself in a self made tower and forget my purpose. My time is not my time; my time is His time. So I'm going to be more intentional, and not get so caught up in this labyrinth of being redefined. Because I don't want to wake up one day and forget who I am. The real me, not the internet presence me or the greedy need-more-now me or the one-man-is-an-island me. Me, with a lovely tangible life full of friends, family, a husband, and a concern for the greater good.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

John 14:27

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11/12 of a new year's resolution: being intentional

Fact: I never make new year's resolutions. Mainly because it's a little cliche & so easy to stop caring about them come MLK weekend. But I think this year there's a bigger underlying movement that's calling for a resolution of sorts: being more intentional with our health & wellness (physical, mental, spiritual, etc.). Two things have come to our attention in the past few weeks that have brought upon this change in attitude. 

one: we visited a dentist in the area who laid things out so black & white that it kind of clicked for me. He introduced himself as Dr. D, and he was just a neat dude {His back story was that he helped start a dental clinic for HIV patients in NYC who otherwise would have had nowhere to receive treatment, but at one point in his life he thought about dropping out of school to become a cabinetmaker in Vermont. Can you tell that he's cool to talk to?}. Anyways, he literally shows you your teeth in a mirror and points out everything. And when you talk to him afterwards, his approach to health is you either do it or you don't. He asked about my flossing habits (who really does that everyday anyway?) and instead of advocating for better gum health, he merely said "You'll either do it or you won't. It's up to you." And by golly, he's right! Who else should care more about my health than me?

two: out of the blue, we watched Hungry for Change on Netflix. Whoa, you guys. Conspiracy central. You think you're eating food? You're not. And it's cool, I'm not about to turn all vegan, organic, or gluten-free, and neither do I think you should either. But the fact remains that there are higher powers at work (cough lobbying groups, industries, and governments cough) whose best intentions are not to always look out for a consumer/constituent but rather for a big name employer/economy. Frankly, we're all eating food-like products, but not food. Isn't that slightly disconcerting to think about? I mean think about it: what are the origins of Coke/Diet Coke? Can you visualize the produce/grains it comes from without looking? And doesn't it creep you out what the shelf life of some products are? How do they last that long?? 

All that to say, we Berry's are about to start getting healthier around here. We've already noticed a change in lifestyle in where we live in Alexandria to how we lived in the south. First off since parking/traffic is a nightmare, we walk a good bit more (whoo more walking and less carbon emissions!), and due to that, we never get fast food anymore unless we're road tripping somewhere {speaking of, hey gas stations, can we start getting some healthier food in your convenience stores? pretty please?}. But we're actually starting to take all this health nonsense to a new level by eating more fruits & veggies and less processed foods. We're actually going to run a half marathon that I will not talk myself out of, while in the process start to really use the Mt. Vernon trail running a quarter mile from our apartment (hey warmer temps, can you start up soon? K thanks). 

Because you know what? No one else is going to care about your health as much as you will one day. That day that health complications start to show up or the day you can't really play ball with your kid because you never exercised the 10 years prior will be the day you regret the decision to not respect your body. And I don't really want that for myself, and I know husmate doesn't either. So we're going to start caring about our health now and hope for the best later! 

So... anybody want a carrot? {fun fact: I have already done a callback to when cartoons were GOOD and chomped my carrots while saying "Ehhh... what's up, doc?" Fingers crossed you recognize the reference... I know, I'm a nerd}

P.S. I know I ragged on Coke, but for those of you who really know me, you know I won't be giving that up for life. But I'm going on the mindset of the Europeans who view Coke as more of a treat than as an understood meal companion. Water is quickly becoming my new BFF. Gasp!