I bused downtown yesterday and spent most of the trip reflecting on how ubiquitous the use of electronic devices has become. Of the fifteen other riders on the bus, all but two were listening to music or texting or talking on their phones. The two not so engaged were South Asian women in their late sixties.
I cancelled my cell phone about two months ago and have not missed it at all. Mind you, I have had much grief from my daughter, Alley, who carries on at great length about the dangers that being cell less opens me up to. What if you are hit by a car, dad, and they don't stop? What if someone robs you? What if you get lost? Good Grief!!! hmm, I'm only fifty-nine and not yet senile, darling. Sometimes I wonder how are children really do see us.
I have an i-pod with several thousand songs on it and half a dozen university level courses and a couple of books and the bible. In the summer when I lie on the deck at my townhouse and soak up the sun I enjoy listening to bits and pieces of the materiel on it. Otherwise, I don't use it much. Playing voyeur on a bus is much more entertaining than listening to stuff that I have already heard on my i-pod.
When I bike I enjoy the, sort of, silence of the wheels running over the road. And of course, the road is a dangerous place for cyclists, and music devices don't make that less so.
I do wonder, at times, if I am cutting my self off from life. Or, perhaps, just letting go...
