12 Responses to “random thoughts of sunday”  

1. 1 Keith Dec 30th, 2007 at 4:23 pm

   No way. Simplicity isn’t the same thing as penury. An iPhone considerably simplifies a 21st-century life, as does anything that lets you struggle less just to get basic stuff done–like having enough living space (which I now have, and which simplifies life enormously despite costing a lot more) and owning a Macintosh instead of a Windows box.

   Life’s too short to have major fights with minor technologies.

2. 2 reverendmother Dec 30th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

   Spoken like a Treo sufferer user!

   But seriously. Yeah. The iPhone does what three of my gadgets (iPod, cell phone, Palm PDA) did. It allows me to do some “productive” things while nursing, and generally manage a complicated life more gracefully.

   You’ve brought up something I’ve thought about a lot. There is this simplicity movement within and beyond the church, and much of it is anything but simple. Growing one’s own food is NOT simple. Going to the nearest grocery store and buying pesticide-laden stuff, shipped from Argentina, is incredibly simple. And yet the former is gentler on the planet. There is virtue to it, even though I don’t live that kind of life and probably won’t anytime in the near future.

   I guess simplicity is only part of the mix. There’s also frugality. And impact on the planet. And one’s mental health (trying to “do it all right” is exhausting–life’s too short anyway).

3. 3 Keith Dec 30th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

   I think there’s also seeing reality clearly, and not trying to pretend it’s still 1850. I loved FRONTIER HOUSE, but it’s a TV show.

   In the last 24 hours, I’ve been a Treo sufferer, Ikea sufferer, Time-Warner cable sufferer, New Jersey transit sufferer, Verizon wireless sufferer, and that’s just off the top of my head during a week when my family’s not even here. This is the world I live in, and I’m not going to go Amish, so simplification involves simplifying what’s actually in front of me.

   Maybe when I’m rich and retired, I’ll tout the benefits of simplicity, zen meditation, or routine high colonics. For now, I actually live in the world.

4. 4 Teri Dec 30th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

   I guess for me there is a difference between simple living and doing things more simplistically. It’s true that it’s easier and more convenient and more simplistic to buy pesticide-laden produce shipped from Argentina than to grow your own. it’s also true that buying such produce not only harms the planet but potentially the people who produce it as well. And it’s also true that buying produce from a CSA is almost as easy as getting it from the store and yet solves some of the ecological and human cost “problem” (for lack of a better term) and, in many ways, is simple. It can make life mildly more complex in that you have to eat whatever is growing at the time, which can be tricky for those of us who are used to having whatever we want whenever we want (or who don’t have the slightest idea how to fix kohlrabi into an edible thing). It also makes life simpler in that you don’t have to choose what to buy that week. It costs a little more up front but costs less in terms of the planet and injustice and, depending on what you do with the stuff in the box, may be cheaper over the year as well (for instance, I froze bell peppers and eggplant because there was so much of it in the summer I couldn’t eat it all). For me, anyway, it’s a viable trade-off. I drive the same distance to pick up my CSA box as I do to the grocery store, and I have the added benefit of knowing where my food comes from, how it was grown, and the people who grow it. (I also have the added benefit of knowing that, as a person at high risk for breast cancer, I’m lowering the pesticide and fertilizer intake that increases risk even further.) Then again, I am a single person–I don’t have to worry about what kids will eat, or how to stretch a grocery budget for a family of five.

   I don’t want to live in 1850, it’s true–I love my macbook and my cell phone and my car and the 1100 square feet of house I share with me, myself, and I (and two cats). I also occasionally love to get berries or tomatoes in the winter and I enjoy the convenience of a variety of modern and postmodern gadgets and I buy my jeans at the Gap. But I also really want to try to live such that my living in the 21st century doesn’t mean that hundreds of others can’t live at all.

   Having said all of that, none of which was related to your actual post, I’ll say that it’s true that trying to do it all right is exhausting. Hence my caving and buying strawberries shipped from California last week–I “needed” them to fortify for the christmas eve extravaganza! and, almost last but not least, iPhones are exceedingly cool.

   Finally, actually last, you should DEFINITELY send some poems to the LoC!!

5. 5 Quotidian Grace Dec 31st, 2007 at 9:18 am

   What a super gift for a young mom of 3!!!

   I’m a jealous wreck. I’m violating the 10th commandment by coveting your iphone. But its my own fault because I keep telling myself I’m going to wait until the 2nd generation.

   But maybe I won’t wait much longer!

6. 6 sherry Dec 31st, 2007 at 5:05 pm

   That iphone is too cute. What I want to know is whether it will connect to the prescription coordinating service that my husband uses when doing his Rx’s. This coordinates what meds his patients are on, what is covered by their insurance plan and (most important of all) has an infrared pointer thingy that connects with his printer to print out the rx. (Hubby’s handwriting is Horrible.)

   When those phones can do that, I’ll be purchasing on also.

   Electronic toys/tools are also part of God’s creative process. At least that is what I have used to justify their purchase.

7. 7 Andy Acton Jan 1st, 2008 at 1:09 am

   I know what you mean. I didn’t get an iPhone, but I did get a iPod Nano and DVDs, books, etc. which doesn’t make life simplistic but rather adds to the stakcs of books and movies I’ve bought and that are collecting dust because I haven’t had a chance to watch or read them. (I am playing with the Nano, though. Not necessarily making my life more simple, but definitely fun.)

   Simply put, consumerism is a bitch and especially when you’re stuggling with how to preach against it. Justification can become an art for all of us I suppose.

   ……………….

   On a seperate note, I read review in Post about One Man Star Wars show, sounded awesome! If you get a chance, go see Avenue Q and Spamalot…great shows, hysterical, LOL

   Movie recommendations: Juno (best film); Charlie Wilson’s War (thought-provoking and off-beat); Enchanted (fun family film, good story); I Am Legend (scary, thought-provoking, intense, brilliant acting by Will Smith); Walk Hard (pee in your pants funny, you’ll laugh till your toes hurt)

8. 8 reverendmother Jan 1st, 2008 at 7:39 pm

   Funny timing, Andy–we just saw Walk Hard, because Charlie Wilson’s War was sold out. Yes, it was silly fun. Other funny timing was that we just finished watching Ray on DVD last night, which made Walk Hard even funnier.

9. 9 Mamala Jan 1st, 2008 at 10:40 pm

   Keith, I love the way you think, and the way you verbalize the way you think. We do, indeed, live in the world we live in. I love my iPhone and being connected at all times, or almost.

10. 10 reverendmother Jan 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Being connected at all times is a blessing and a curse, is all.

11. 11 Keith Jan 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Thanks, Mamala. I generally figure I’m annoying people, so that was nice.

    I agree, though, that being connected at all times can be a problem. I used to drive out to Death Valley to get writing done at a motel with no TV, no phone, no nothing. The writing got done.

12. 12 reverendmother Jan 2nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    My old laptop had an external wireless card that could be set aside whenever necessary, and I miss that mental partitioning.

    On the other hand, I’m writing this from the iPhone without disturbing the baby sleeping on my chest, so there’s that.

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