well, right up front, I admit that I had some help in the form of being in a car on my way to Florida (more on that in another post coming soon). But hey, I did shut off my crack-berry and I refused to get out the laptop–or let anyone else get it out. That meant, no checking the weather or news Saturday morning while in the hotel room, no catching up on email while not driving, nor at the new hotel on Saturday night.

In short, it was a fast. And like most fasts, it started out with a temptation or two to break the fast, but once I got into it, it was actually pretty easy. It was a Saturday, after all, and traveling made it that much easier.

I guess you could say it was a mini “giving this up for Lent” sort of thing in that it helped me to spend the extra time with the Lord. For instance, even though I was on the road, I still spent more time in solitude before getting in the car than I would have if I had fallen into the usual and customary boot up and surf the net mode.

On the other hand, trying to write in a journal vs. type was down right weird. Sure, I can handle one or two sentences, but whole journal entries? man! my hand started to ache, and talk about bad penmanship. An arthritic doctor using his left foot would be more legible.

Another thing about shutting down for a day: it made me feel more appreciative of having a computer. They can be a pain all right, but most of the world has never seen one let alone used one. It sure is cool to get huge volumes of information on demand, or communicate instantaneously!

All in all, it was a good experience. It fit right in with my never ending battle to dampen down some of the distractions in life and carve out some time in solitude or just simply to simplify a little.

When I was in high school, a friend once told me that I was afraid to be alone, alone with myself. After all of these years, that statement has stuck with me. It was a God send moment. It was a beginning.

I wonder if sometimes people grab for their phones, PCs, games, etc. because they too are afraid, afraid of the silence, afraid of “missing something” or in reality afraid of themselves.

On the other hand, I think that sometimes we just get caught up in things and develop bad habits, habits that make the notion of occasional solitude and reflection seem impossible. But it is not impossible. Indeed, it is essential to our souls to shut out the noise once in a while.

I predict all of the over stimulation in society today will create a backlash from our children, or more likely, from *their* children. Most of the teens I know are really deep into techno-toys (not real technology like relational databases or proxy firewalls, but Toys–text messaging, cell phones, MP3s, YouTube, etc.). I predict that their children will get sick of all that and shun it. Mabye even this current generation of teens, by the time they get married and start families, will “go home and rethink their lives” and start the “revolution” themselves. They may even start pushing for more solitude, silence, reflection etc. in the Church. They may look at my generation’s music (Chris Tomlin, Delirious, et al) and say “too loud! We get enough noise out in the world. We don’t want it in church. We need serenity, time for reflection, peace, silence.”

Far fetched idea? Societies tend to move in cycles, so I don’t really think it is far fetched. Who would have thought that most of the 60s anti-establishment kids would become the 80s me-generation of Yuppies? Who would have thought that a classical music loving parent (my mom) would have a Pink Floyd kind of son (me) who in turn has a classical music loving child (my son). Some things go in cycles.