ManicDDaily

Pearl, Nature, Butterfly, iPhone

Yes, yes, I know it’s undoubtedly a character flaw.  (At least this is the implication in the side-long glances, ahem, glares, I’ve been getting from certain family members.)

And it’s certainly not very zen.

But the fact is that I’m addicted to electronic gadgetry.

Not TV or gameboxes.  (I think I may be combining X-boxes and gameboys there).  The communicating kinds–the ones that you mis-type little messages on.

Sometimes, I really do make do with an old-fashioned composition book, but I also have been carrying my iPhone or iPad around with me a lot these days, even on little hikes in the country (where I am staying right now.)

It’s terrible.  I know that when I am taking these walks, I should probably just be  in nature.

But electronic gadgets feed something very ravenous in the ManicD personality.

The obvious: a hunger for words–our own, those of others.

Even more important, a need for purpose, possibility.  When you carry around an electronic device, you know that at any moment you can start and perhaps even complete some not-yet imagined task.  It may also be a completely imaginary task–did you really need to respond to that email just when you were passing that small waterfall–still, having that warm little radioactive slab on your person can grant some palpable glow of self-importance.

I’m thankfully moving a bit beyond this aspect of the gadgetry.  Using the device to ensure non-stop availability can soon make you feel more harried than efficient.  (I also don’t have very good reception here.)

Did you know, however, that you can download and carry around a poem on the screen of your iPhone or iPad, which will show up even when you have no service, and that then you can look down every few moments during your walk and memorize it?

Okay okay.  Some of you may not have taken a vow to do anything (other than giving up wine at dinner) to salvage your remaining brain cells.  Some of you (i.e. my husband) may not think that repeated glances at an electronic screen and mumbling even deeply poetic lines promote the contemplation of nature.

So, how about using your phone or tablet for photography?  You are required, after all, to stop and look at what you photograph.

Yesterday, for example, Pearl and I and iPhone spent a fair amount of time on butterflies, beavers, water, stones.  Some internal quiet did, eventually, ensue, despite the device in hand, the repeating rhymes in the head.

The family members also forgave us.