Writing

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Day the world shut down
Or was it just very boring?

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When I was a kid without a doubt …

Sunday was the boringest day.

The reason?

For one, everything closed down. Stores weren’t open and the television shows were bad. By bad I mean they weren’t Saturday morning cartoons. In sum, the world shut down on Sunday.

Compare that to today when Sunday is pretty much just another day. Or so it seems. Yes, you can’t reach any number of business or government entities over the phone — but more or less its not all that different than the other days. Not to mention that the screen viewing options are limitless every day of the week or any time of the day.

Thinking back …

I’m wondering now if Sunday’s were so boring because of this: church. Between the hour it took to get ready and get everyone in the car, plus add the frequent occasions where, not being able to do that (on time) we slipped from the 10 o’clock mass to the 11:30 (or even the 1 pm on very lethargic days), then factor in the plus one hour service followed by the drive home: not only was the service a real snoozer, by the time we arrived back home the day was pretty much done.

Moral of story: As much as I loathed going to church growing up, today I attribute it my high tolerance of boredom to my ability to think deep. Thank you boring Sundays, I’ll always have a fond spot for you in my heart.

Who knew: Sunday is the busiest day of the week for internet use.

Freeing your hands
And your mind

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I‘m not saying you can’t have great ideas …

with your phone in hand.

But how would you know?

The truth is the phone is always with us, either in our pocket or in our hand and always (or too often) in our mind. The expectation of our availability to the phone and the phones availability to us is beyond anything we could have ever contemplated, say, prior to 1999.

The result?

I feel like the phone controls me now more than my wrist watch. Texts, emails and calls require, if not immediate responses — they infiltrate into your mind and erase your entry into deeper more groundbreaking thoughts.

Perhaps my greatest regret in life is that I didn’t find an avocation (and skillset) that required me to work with my hands. As much as I depend on my phone, I’d like to depend on my hands more and just put the phone down.

Medical diagnosis: Using a phone for hours on end can lead to conditions such as a repetitive stress injury known as stenosing tenosynovitis or trigger thumb. 

Note to Self
A How To Guide

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Why write a letter to yourself?

For one you can save on the stamp.

Most importantly, it’s good practice for writing to a friend. Alternately, you could write the practice letter to your friend and send a follow-up second version, but this time with different information, to another friend. Granted, that’s probably a second letter. But you get my point. Just like an appetite comes with eating, writing begets more writing and before you know it you have a pencil that’s worn down to a nub. Unless you’re using a pen, then it’ll eventually run out of ink. “There’s a lot of ink in that well,” as they say. Actually no one says that. But you know what I mean.

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