Bodily Present, Mind Absent.

Feeling: Enlightened

On Monday evening Chris and I were sitting talking. We had the TV blaring in the background and Luke sitting surrounded by toys merrily bashing what ever he could reach. He is such a boy!

At 17:30 Oprah came on, we found ourselves getting quite involved in her show.
They were talking about a family who had become totally disconnected because of email, texting and all the electronic bits and bobs in their lives.
Basically the family were never mentally present when together. They lived in the same house but never communicated or did things as a family. They were too busy living in their little electronic bubbles.

Wow.... Chris and I started to discuss this and we came to the conclusion that it is terribly true.

Have you ever been in the company of a friend who texts the entire time that you are together or someone who runs off every time their phone rings leaving you sitting there twiddling your thumbs while they have a pointless conversation with someone else? Irritating hey?

I have often felt like getting up and going home when people have done this to me. I find it extremely rude, it makes me feel like my company is not good enough.

In our society however it is a norm and has become a widely accepted practice. Most people do not even blink an eyelid and will even start texing themselves.....so you get 2 people sitting together in a social setting texting someone else..pretty ridiculous if you actually stop and think about it!

People have become bodily present and mind absent!

I am not a phone junkie, I absolutely hate talking on the phone. I tend to leave my phone lying all over the place and often forget to even check it. As far as I am concerned it is there for emergencies, to organise get togethers, to confirm plans and to give someone a quick I am thinking about you message. It is not my friend or a relationship forming tool.

People often berate me when they call and I do not answer immediately.....HELLO! I am busy.

Do people think that I sit around all day waiting for them to call?

When I am at home, I am at home and am present not only in body but in mind as well.
Texting can wait, emailing can wait, FB can wait and even TV can wait. I would rather spend an evening eating dinner as a family, laughing and chatting, there is nothing better.

I find FB fascinating you can see exactly what people have watched the night before. Don't get me wrong I do enjoy a good TV programme and I do most definitely like DSTV but since I have been married we have not had Mnet or DSTV. At first I was worried..what are we going to watch... when growing up we always had them.

To my surprise I don't miss them at all! I actually feel despondent every time Chris suggests that we go and get "hooked up". If we do I know that a lot of the things that we do now together as a family will fall away. Electronic bubble syndrome!

At the moment we have a choice of 4 channels, we often loose interest in whatever is on because they play total junk or extremely old stuff....pretty boring! There is only so much wrestling that one can watch..SNIGGER!
Instead of watching that rubbish we do other things as a family and actually talk to each other..gasp, horror! hehee

I know that eventually we will move back into the 21st century and will get DSTV but for now I have to say a big thank you to SABC and ETV for the rubbish that they play!
It has made my family closer...so by all means please continue with your current business plan and I will continue to pay my TV licence, it is best and cheapest family therapy around!

Much Love M :-)