How We Entertain Ourselves Without Technology

WARNING! For the duration of this blog entry, I'm going to ask you to read without checking your cell, your e-mail, your facebook, your twitter, your linkedin, your updates, your uploads, your downloads, your accounts, or whatever your avatar self does all day. Do you think you can do it?


One question my family often gets is, "What do you do up there?" True, we don't have television, internet, or cell service; we don't have a game system, the latest blue-ray player, or other gadgets that so many of our friends can't seem to live without. I'm not bashing the technological world for I use it all the time. Without technology I would not be writing this post right now and it provides me with the service of communication with those people whom I choose to maintain contact with (like you). That said, my family has discovered the bliss of unplugging from the age of technology and it has resulted in a sense of freedom.


So, what do we do to entertain ourselves?


Activity: We read books.

Cool Family Moment: One of our family's great memories took place during our War and Peace marathon, which literally resulted in the demolition of the book. I handed sections of pages to Daddy and he then passed them along to Momma who made perfect little stacks of the close to 1000 pages after everyone read Tolstoy's words.


Activity: We talk.

Cool Family Moment: We solve the world's problems, our own problems, and our two nations' problems through dialectics before breakfast is over.


Activity: We go for walks alone or together.

Cool Family Moment: When alone, we are able to sort out our own lives and dreams so we don't kill each other from lack of space. When together, we learn more about one another and discover thoughts and sides of our family that we never knew existed.


Activity: We sit around and think.

Cool Family Moment: Through reflection and introspection, we have discovered the importance of the phrase, "Know Thy Self" and life is now so much more rewarding.


Activity: We work on our own personal hobbies (i.e. I knit and write, Daddy reloads and does leather craft, Momma bakes and crochets).

Cool Family Moment: The discovery that we are able to think and enjoy our lives without being told what to think and do.


Activity: We watch and commentate on movies together.

Cool Family Moment: That point in LOTR when Frodo is a prisoner, the orc says "that shiny SHIRT is mine" (except that "shirt" comes out like a four-letter word), and everyone still bursts into laughter after all these years.


Activity: We write letters.

Cool Family Moment: When we send off a letter and smile from the knowledge that there is a small ray of joy on the way to someone dear to us.


Activity: Hunting with Daddy.

Cool Family Moment: When we're making our way home at dusk and hear the eerie bellowing of a cow moose echo over the land and rip to shreds the sleeping silence of the forest.


Activity: When we go fishing.

Cool Family Moment: When I park my kayak next to a beaver dam, eat a few snacks, soak up the sun, and think of how my parents look like a Rockwell painting as they fish from our canoe.


Activity: When we take road trips (no backseat screens for us, thanks)!

Cool Family Moment: When everyone is singing along to old hits from the 70s because they're awesome and help us make crazy 2 day, 36 hour drives possible.


Activity: Waking up and watching the aurora borealis dance through the midnight sky.

Cool Family Moment: Waking up everyone else, going outside, and reeling with that glorious feeling that tells you that you are doing exactly what you ought to be doing for the moment. Okay, it's 3AM -- what's your point?


Activity: We live in a family zone.

Cool Family Moment: When we realize that we are together not by force or the use of agenda-shifting time blocks, but because we have come to enjoy our life together.


My short list does not begin to cover all that my family does together, but it's a small example of how we entertain ourselves and what we like to do. I've been bushed so long, I don't remember what we did before creating our uncivilized life. Oh well, it obviously didn't leave much of an impression. Life is far too vibrant now for me to ever want to go back to the former norm. By writing this blog entry, I've made myself curious: What do you do out there? And, how free are you?


Love,
Jenn