In My Shoes

Not having my internet at home has at first been causing much anguish but has also removed some stress and compulsive behavior on my part. Now I can't check email like 20 bazillion times and google myself and look for hot shoes online, or rather pictures of hot shoes that I bought so you all who don't live close by can get a glimpse of my tootsies, or rather what's on my tootsies. (By the way, today I'm wearing the new Mary Jane red Campers). I'm walking in the shoes of a girl no longer chained to incoming messages and enjoying the freedom from technology, It's funny, these advances, meant to enrich our lives also come with a cost--it's hard to imagine dealing without these things. Cell phones, email. Think about all the people who walk around on their phones all the time, think of all the things they miss while walking. I wonder if technology makes us more self absorbed? I like the way this fits, though email comes next tuesday--or perhaps, I'm still battling the evil Verizon monopoly and their bureaucracy but that's another rant, neither worth my time or yours. I'll leave that battle to my corporate lawyer boyfriend. He can fight the good fight for fair use of pole attachments and anti-corporate mergers and free cable lines and whatnot.

In class we're talking about perspectives, how something changes from first to third person, what details filter in and who gets to be the one with the voice in our stories. So often we only focus on our own and our needs. So I'm going to more yoga and trying to see the greater schema of life, and of not focusing on the smaller things like Verizon and my shoes (the latter being much more challenging). We're also talking about setting and how the places we encounter change us.
From a simple car or metro ride to a trip abroad, to room in our homes, or the local cafe all become part of our world, how our surroundings are a tapestry and if we pay attention to the things these places and these moments tell us, we begin to understand things that are universal, that transcend our locality, essentially what it means to be human. Sans email, sans cell phone. Try it and see what is there, the things you miss when you remove the protective guise of technology and become more in tune with what is.