{"id":62468,"date":"2012-11-27T19:30:54","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T00:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=62468"},"modified":"2012-11-27T17:05:40","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T22:05:40","slug":"words-from-a-budding-luddite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/words-from-a-budding-luddite\/","title":{"rendered":"Words From a Budding Luddite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note:<\/strong> This piece was sent in during the Thanksgiving holiday and got lost in the shuffle, but the message is still relevant to the season. We’ll be running articles by Calvin periodically. — Amanda<\/em><\/p>\n

By Calvin Hutcheon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is a sad state of affairs when a family looks forward to the Thanksgiving holiday not for the conversation, or the act of preparing a feast, but for mere consumptions, be they the glutinous devouring of the turkey, the ravenous watching of a metaphorical turkey being tossed, or the unapologetic greed of Black Friday. There is little time for each other, when there are all these convenient distractions. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Is this what it means to give thanks? A crowd of shoppers waits outside the Target store in Lisbon, Connecticut, before it opened for Black Friday last year. Photo: Sean D. Elliot \/ The Day \/ AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Football games offer a go between, a way to bond with the TV mediating. Many memories are created, as the game encapsulates the ups, downs, struggles and triumphs that create any real relationship, but these are mere surrogates for the real thing. Living vicariously has become expected, as it lets us go through the emotions without discomfort.<\/p>\n

Products and familiar rituals offer further comfort, but the comfort of family has lost much of its charm, like the clothes or the bed dressing we posses. Once they were hand stitched and made with effort and commitment, now they are store bought and judged merely on their fashionableness and price; it is the same with memories and relationships. <\/p>\n

Often times the mentality is, “if I buy this, the recipient will remember me fondly.” This is the mindset that drives extravagant sweet sixteen parties and kids expecting cars. Relationships are crafted out of small moments compiled and compounded. They are not formed by big, clumsy, grandiose gestures, but by the opposite.<\/p>\n

Though these small moments of relating do happen, often they are interrupted and don’t have time to mature. The culprit: cell phones and other forms of instant distraction. Conversations are interrupted by calls and the thought process is derailed by superfluous electronic noises in the environment — this insidious presence is everywhere. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I had been hoping to enjoy a lovely hike in the foothills of the Appalachians the other day. It was a splendid walk, up rolling hills covered by gnarled trees that were somewhere between sinister and beautiful. The fall light cast shadows like reaching fingers over the illumined carpet of golden red leaves. As I reached the top I was greeted with a magnificent view of distant blue mountains, somehow the same color as the sky, yet distinct and crisp. My admiration was sadly interrupted as a group of young women, just about my age, sat down right next to me and shared their tepid and shallow phone conversations. <\/p>\n

This was at the top of a mountain, may I remind you, on a stunning cloudless day and these people of my generation were glued to their devices. Sure, they thought it was pretty, but they experienced it through an electronic eye, photographing and discussing the merits of the updated iPhone with its panoramic shot feature. <\/p>\n

Is this the way we experience now? Is this how we interact with friends and family, describing our lives, but taking ourselves out of the picture through the convenience of recorded memories? Things that cannot be put into film, such as emotions or atmosphere, are discarded so only the superficial is left. This has become what traditions and stories are based on and this precarious base is sorely lacking in feelings and substance. <\/p>\n

No wonder conservatives are up in arms about family values. I agree, in one respect, that we are losing the importance and meaningfulness of relationships but the culprits, in my opinion, are not gays or abortionists; they are, much of the time, things most people willingly bring into their life, such as electronics and football games. The fact that America spends one whole day of its Thanksgiving break devoted to these things shows how ingrained consumption is.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately nothing will be magically changed if everyone stops celebrating Black Friday. As most things are, this issue is far more complicated, yet the problem remains; the fiber of memories has been replaced by consumption, as well as other surrogates, and technology has sadly become a go-between. While Black Friday is but a poster child, a figurehead — and an ugly one of an uncontrollable hydra at that — it would be nice to see it come to an end. But more heads will rear and I will retreat back into a corner, without a cell phone or a tablet. I am truly frightened, and this Black Friday I will surely be hiding in some safe place, far from the reality of consumer society, hoping my generation comes to its senses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: This piece was sent in during the Thanksgiving holiday and got lost in the shuffle, but the message is still relevant to the season. We’ll be running articles by Calvin periodically. — Amanda By Calvin Hutcheon It is a sad state of affairs when a family looks forward to the Thanksgiving holiday not … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}