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recently i got one of those pass-it-along things that is supposed to be advice from the dalai lama. and a few of the bits really make me think.
the one that made me think most was: Spend some time alone every day.
because my first thought was, well, i do that. but then i thought, no, i almost never do. i spend time without other people but with my computer and computer games or TV or videos or... wait for it... a book! i am not likely to put myself in any situation where i have longer than two and a half minutes of inactivity without a book to read. i used to think in the car, but now i just listen to audio books in the car. my I/O processes get more and more "I" all the time.
my housemate says that usually she would rather "do" something than read about someone else doing it. on the other hand, i'd rather read about someone else doing something and pretend i'd done it. adventure without the bugs and wet sleeping bags.
which all leads into the virtual communication explosion. i don't talk to people much anymore - at least not in person. i email, i IM, and more and more i use LJ and facebook to interact. now that's not such a bad thing, i tell myself, when people are geographically far away. but i do the same thing for people who are close by - often in the same house. and at work? I haven't had a face to face meeting with a co-worker in months, and with anyone on my team in more than a year. my work is ALL virtual.
perhaps the other face of "spend some time alone each day" is to spend some time each day interacting with real people rather than virtually interacting with people on the computer.
the one that made me think most was: Spend some time alone every day.
because my first thought was, well, i do that. but then i thought, no, i almost never do. i spend time without other people but with my computer and computer games or TV or videos or... wait for it... a book! i am not likely to put myself in any situation where i have longer than two and a half minutes of inactivity without a book to read. i used to think in the car, but now i just listen to audio books in the car. my I/O processes get more and more "I" all the time.
my housemate says that usually she would rather "do" something than read about someone else doing it. on the other hand, i'd rather read about someone else doing something and pretend i'd done it. adventure without the bugs and wet sleeping bags.
which all leads into the virtual communication explosion. i don't talk to people much anymore - at least not in person. i email, i IM, and more and more i use LJ and facebook to interact. now that's not such a bad thing, i tell myself, when people are geographically far away. but i do the same thing for people who are close by - often in the same house. and at work? I haven't had a face to face meeting with a co-worker in months, and with anyone on my team in more than a year. my work is ALL virtual.
perhaps the other face of "spend some time alone each day" is to spend some time each day interacting with real people rather than virtually interacting with people on the computer.
