I'm writing this post from my mother's house in Wollongong. The Captain and I packed up the truck (and I mean packed - the poor cat barely had enough room in the back!) and hit the road to the 'gong yesterday. We're here for the school holidays and also because tomorrow is the celebration for my grandmother's 80th birthday party (but that's another blog for another day).
I must say the great thing about technology is being able to stay in touch online wherever you may be. I guess that's also the worst thing about it. There are two articles I read in the paper here at my mum's that I wanted to share from the Sun Herald.
This is an excerpt from Gretel Killeen's column entitled Plane truth about high-level cleverness.
She wrote this article from the plane on the way to London.
______________________________________________
The fact is you don't choose to be a writer. A writer needs to write to feel normal. To be a writer means thatyou're at the same time a romantic and a cynic, believing that absolutely anything is possible, and as a result constantly breaking your own heart. To be a writer means you're a membrane and a messenger. It's your function to see things, feel things and translate things that most people in our society are unaware of until you point them out. This means, of course, that you must be sensitive, which also means you're a constant pain in the arse. To be a writer can mean you need constant reassurance...which you never believe. To be a writer means you can rationalise why a character can spontaneously turn into a lizard and fly, but be confounded when someone doesn't reply to an email. To be a writer means you can make something out of absolutely nothing - just like magic. To be a writer means that you can agonise over whether to add an exclamation mark to a text message that says"I love you" - and then accidentally send the message to your accountant.
__________________________________________________________
The second article that caught my attnetion was one on happy marriages and how to maintain them in the 21st century. The question of technology came up. As I already said, having access to the World Wide Web wherever you go, laptops, computers, even phones, can be a double edged sword. This article posited the question is alright to take your laptop with you when going away together for a romantic weekend? Or should you send a text (or read one for that matter) during a romantic dinner? Where should we draw the line with our access technology? At what point does the internet and all the many wonders that it holds go from being god-send, can'-live-without-it, to all-consuming, personality-destroying addiction? And what is being sacrificed in favour of technology? I'm sitting here clacking away on a faulty keyboard with a space bar that doesn't work properly whilst the Captain sits alone on the lounge reading a book. I'm not suggesting that every minute should be spent with your partner and the Captain and I certainly have our quality time together(we insist upon it) but for some couples it's the norm. And certainly for some singles too. I just hope that we remember to recognise the limitations of technology and in particular the internet. Yeah it's great to get an email, to keep intouch via facebook and so on, but nowhere near as good as a hug from your child or a conversation and a meal with loved ones. That said I'm going to go and lay with my husband.
Kirsty x
No comments:
Post a Comment