To Text, Or Not To Text

(OLD BLOG, FEEL FREE TO SKIP!) :)

"Talk of Heaven! Ye disgrace Earth". What an incredible line. I love not only the majestic use of 'YE' but also the thought provoking statement about how when we liken all natural things to the majesty of Heaven or Eden that we forget that which we are talking about is here, tangible, tastable, non-celestial and perhaps more sacred and holy because of it.

On my walk this evening I thought a lot about social interaction, and about visitors. One thing that always strikes me on the walks I take for this class is the loneliness of walking alone in the woods, where everything is interconnected and humming with life, where the trees tower over me and the lake stretches out almost past where I can see. You cannot help but feel that you are small and insignificant, but that you are also small and insignificant with every other human being on Earth, adding almost a kind of kinship and camaraderie to the loneliness you feel. I think that even the most powerful or most physically domineering of people cannot stand beside the ocean and think themselves it's equal or lord over it, and that is how I feel in the woods, and it is both humbling and empowering how the majesty of nature knocks us all, great or low, down a few pegs.

The loneliness of a nature walk got me thinking also about what Thoreau had to say about his time in the woods and the visitors he received, and about how "fewer came to see me upon trivial business". I know that this was written many years ago, but I think the idea is still applicable today. I think that with the era of cell phones that our worlds are not only smaller, but that our interactions with each other have suffered as a result. When you had to set up a visit and go see a friend in person, or when you had to hand write a letter that would reach someone days later, we took more thought and were less likely to socialize for the mere sake of socializing. I feel that our connection to each other is much less thoughtful now that we can call for any reason, and exchange texts and pictures at the drop of a hat. In an era where we can avoid social interaction all together by checking facebook pages for changes and events in people's lives, what would it be like if we all just put it aside for a while, got land-line phones and answering machines? I imagine the result would be much like what Thoreau describes, and we would find out then who was worth keeping in contact with, who challenges us, and who we would go out of our way to contact.