Smart phones, in general, have the opposite effect on humans. Can't remember? Look it up. No memory of a phone #? No problem. The phone knows. It's a great way of disengaging when present company is unpleasant. They are a gentle distraction where the mind goes to take a break. Alternately, it is a constant reminder of everything else you could be doing - you slacker! How dare you take time for lunch? This document needs to be approved and sent to the Zurich office five minutes ago! Or maybe, checking for messages is just a plea for attention - someone must want to talk to me/need me/be thinking of me, yes? I AM important. I matter.
Perhaps one should simply accept slacker time as such - or even elevate it to a learning moment. Go down that Wikipedia rabbit hole. Delve into the family structure and communication patters of bayou duck call makers. It is surely worth 100% of your attention, right?
But when work doesn't beckon, and you are by yourself, say, at a museum, surrounded by beautiful things and the goal at hand is to absorb said beautiful things what then? It is time to enjoy the fact that you have managed to get away to a museum on a Friday afternoon. You are playing hooky. All the errands are run. All the messages responded too. Nothing urgent is going to happen. The sun is shining and the galleries are almost empty. Why, why, why must I check my email then?
Why, while absorbing the creative and artistic genius of Giotto and his Florentine brothers must I check my email? Isn't the detail in that altarpiece enough? Have you not been transported to a candle lit church and an evening of devotion by the myriad passion paintings? Mesmerized by the glistening gold leaf of the halos on the saints Isn't this the time to put aside worldly cares and look inward in meditation - of art of faith depending on your mood?
A single peak at the incoming distractions will do nothing but break your concentration. Take you out of the magical construct your mind has created. Away from the candle smoke and chanting priests and back to now. Why? You leave your universe behind. Feeling important in a harried kind of way by one message that could certainly have waited. Another gallery of glorious mid century photography glides by as your mind churns over new developments.Your attention fades. Plans resurfacing. Minds reconfigure. Out you go into now. The gardens and the dappled sunlight can't compete. The slow meditative breathing you acquired compromised by the pressure of a decision that certainly could have waited. The moment is over. The magic is gone.
And you still have to pay for parking.
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