Simplifying Saturdays - Disconnect

In this the information overloaded age of blackberry's, iPhones, video games that can talk to each other, Mp3 players, computers, the internet, email, and the television. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisement and overstimulated with flashing lights and interruptions.

I can't even have a meeting with my boss these days without him looking at his blackberry every 5 seconds to see the email that he just received. A meeting that normally took 20 minutes just turned into 60 minutes. It's a waste of time, my time.

Although technology is a great thing there are times when everyone should disconnect. Instead of playing with your virtual friends, get out there and have dinner with your real life friends. Instead of playing golf on your video game, grab your honey and hit the greens. Take a walk around the neighborhood or bike through the park, stroll down main street or hike in the woods, read a good book or do a crossword puzzle. Feel the sun and stop...breathe...relax...feel...this...moment.

We all get wrapped up in day to day activities. I am very guilty of not enjoying the present because I'm too busy planning the next big thing. But we have to slow down, we have to find what is meaningful to us. We need to make memories with the people we love.

Television and I have a love/hate relationship. I love TV and really good shows will sucks me in as fast as anything. The problem I have with TV is that, for me, once I'm on the couch watching I will not be getting up until bedtime. I think that sucks. The other is all the advertisements telling you what you need to buy, how you should look, and that your not good enough until you purchase xyz-doodle! TV plays a large part in how I view myself in the world, and it's never a positive thing.

When Terri and I moved in together we almost never watched TV. We don't have a huge flat screen HDTV. Ours is a little 19 in that I had in my room as a kid. We barely watch TV in the summer because we're out doing things and it's still just limited in the winter. We don't like getting hooked on shows that we feel like we have to watch every week. That's too much of a commitment for us and we'd rather be out living life instead of watching a pretend, over-exaggeration one on TV

So turn off the TV. Take a weekend and don't watch it. Turn off the computer and video games. Pull the Mp3 player ear plugs out of your head and find something else to do.