Can you even imagine it, a world with no wifi? A modern crisis of cataclysmic proportions.
As I sat by our campfire this past week on vacation, my wife and children in disgust and frustration decried the untold horror of having no social media for a whole week: no Facebook, no Instagram, no downloads for game apps, and no info-surfing! Say it isn't so? It isn't so... So what was the result of a wifi-less vacation? One thing's for sure, the sky didn't fall, and Ecclesiastes 1:4 & 9 was still in play, "the earth remains...and...What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." My wonderful new insight is this: even with the dawn of the Internet, the world hasn't changed much, if any. Sadly, it takes a week of no wifi for a silly human like me to once again see the forest from the trees. Vacation without electronics, a refreshing walk down the ancient paths. Let me share with you how my sky didn't fall: (1) I wasn't angry about things I couldn't change (Emotional Sabbath). For one whole week the media spin masters didn't dictate my mood. I was shielded from having to contemplate the hot new moral conflict of the day. I didn't have a mental debate with the journalistic hacks of Yahoo, Huffington Post or Drudge. No emotional sparring about SCOTUS or the Confederate flag. I wasn't confronted with considering the new styles for transgendered lingerie. I didn't even have to get mad at the next culturally cool and enlightened neophyte jumping on the 'Love Wins' bandwagon. Emotional freedom, ah, so nice! (2) I didn't see one picture of Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Miley Cyrus, Hilary Clinton or the 784 different republican candidates running for the party's nomination (Celebrity Sabbath). Why do we care so much about plastic people anyhow? (3) I didn't have to know what delicious meal my friends were eating for dinner, how much weight a person lost in the last ten days, or the fun everyone else but me was having while I was scanning Facebook in my boring mundane world of the eternal gray (Cyber-Surfing Sabbath). Vacation gave me another chance to be reacquainted with myself and the clear blue sky of the "present now": (1) I did see my kids eyes. I actually looked into them. I saw them smiling! (2) I did laugh with my wife. I had to relearn my parent's lost art. (3) I did read a great book. "Between Heaven and Hell" by Peter Kreeft. Can you imagine having 2 hours of chewing on one singular argument without interruptions from another 'Breaking News' announcement? ("Important Weather Alert: it may rain with strong enough winds that could take down a plastic lawn chair...stayed tuned to learn from our channel's survival experts how not to let an errant acorn that has been blown off a nearby tree from hitting your eye and blinding you!") (4) I did talk to God. After spending a week of wifi silence I am forced to revisit a question that has been gnawing on my subconscious for the last few years: "Is there a point where my social media involvement can be considered a sin?" Yes, absolutely! When I quit looking into my kids eyes, laughing with my wife, reading and meditating, and of course praying is put on the back burner so I can get the latest news about nothing, I must face the truth that I have done something terribly wrong. I have let a stupid piece of electronics steal another small bite of my soul. So don't fret. If you stay off-line for a few days, the sky will be just fine. And by the way, what color are your kids eyes? If you don't know the answer, something is definitely wrong with you.
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