One night last week, I came home really late after teaching a class. I just wanted to rest, so I ate something, watch the news, and connected my cell phone to its charger, so I can fully use my phone the next day.
However, the next morning I was upset to discover the battery of my phone was dead. The night before, because I was in a hurry to go to sleep after a long day at work, I didn’t realize I connected my phone to the charger, but the charger was not connected to the outlet. There was no renewal of energy for my phone.
Then, I thought that perhaps something similar is happening to me. I am so connected to technology I can’t disconnect myself. (I am writing this column using a computer, not a pencil and a piece of paper.) But what if technology is disconnected from reality?
In other words, what I am connected to on a daily basis to regain and renew my strength and energy to face the challenges of that day with all the components of my life in full working order?
I think that, in the same way my phone was falsely connected to a source of energy, many times, due to our anxiety, negligence, or weariness, we get connected to “unconnected connections.” We hope we will obtain from them what we need from our daily life, when in reality they are discharging us from our internal energy.
In our post-modern, techno-scientific, globalized society we live our lives always in a hurry, and therefore we live superficial lives, seldom thinking about what are we connected to -be it a real connection or just an illusion- when we want to progress in our lives.
Some people are connected to politics, careers, businesses, money, religion, families, or science, to name just a few of the usual “connections.” But what are those connections connected to? Are they a true source of energy or they are not connected to anything, as the charger of my phone?
Are we connected to something that will revitalize our energy or to a trap that sucks all our energy, spontaneity, and creativity?
Is that the reason why in this time and age there are so many people in our society that seems to be half asleep and not fully awake? Is that why they are always looking for something that will give them some energy? Is that why they can’t focus and solve even the most trivial intellectual tasks?
What a cruel paradox it will be if we discover we are connected to something that, instead of recharging our energy, depletes us from our internal energy, forcing us to live a life of sleepwalkers, mechanically fulfilling our duties but never fully awake?
Perhaps it is time to reconnect to what does not change, to our traditions, our family, and even ourselves. Because the existential disconnections, even if they are wrapped in entertainment and fun, are synonym with death in life.