Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Cell Phones are Ringing in the Pockets of the Dead

I heard this song today called 'Cell Phones'. The line in the song is 'something...something...and cell phones are ringing in the pockets of the dead." It made me really stop and think about the materialism around me.
Where did this need for meaningless stuff come from? Or maybe I shouldn't say meaningless... just unnecessary really. Is it our nation's need for speed that started all this collecting? We don't really need cell phones, right? But you can get what you want a lot faster with a cell phone. Computers, Internet, and all associated accessories... We really can live without them. It just takes a little longer to get what you want. Hand write it. It's not as fast, but I think it is more meaningful. It takes more time to do it, so maybe you have more time to think about what you are actually writing. Go to the library and look it up. Get some exercise. We can get by without Internet. It just takes a little longer.
Fast cars...large machines...everything must go faster or have more power.
Do these things really make our lives less complicated? I feel like the more stuff I get attached to, the busier my life becomes. And other people expect me to be that way. I am expected to answer my phone every time it rings. I am expected to drive a vehicle as a convenience to other people. I am expected to know how to send a fax and work a computer. I realize that these types of things are what our generation runs on...but is it necessary?
Must we move so fast?
I look forward to a day when people do what needs to be done, and maybe it takes them a day to do it. Maybe it could take a week to find the information I want. That's alright with me. I'm tired of rushing rushing rushing to get 'important' things done. What makes them so important, anyway?

Some friends of my grandparents, a couple of old ranchers, were once asked what the most difficult part of their ranching lives was. They replied by telling stories for hours about how the switch from manual labor to 'modern day mechanics' nearly killed them.

Well... maybe it did kill them. Maybe it's killing us. Why can't we just all slow down a little bit?

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