Monday, December 2, 2013

Of Black Friday, Shakespeare, and Sit-Ins...

The ultimate wordsmith...

First let me say that I have never shopped Black Friday.  Even before it was a thing...I never went out shopping for any sales the day after Thanksgiving, or the day after Christmas.  Then it became a thing and I was like, "What?"  And now it's become a whole 2-day thing where people plan for weeks and strategize and sleep in front of doorways and trample each other for Playstations or Kitchenaids.  I can only hope that in 300 years...THOSE are not the images the future will look back on and see of our culture, but I digress.

Leaving aside that the retailers could totally prevent this crap by not opening at 8 pm the night before or 3 a.m. on Friday or whatever causes the mayhem, and realizing that it wouldn't matter one way or the other what I did on Friday, but hey--I like to contribute--so I decided to stage my own one-person protest sit-in over the weekend.  Which I did, by staying AT HOME, unplugged from the world, with all my techie stuff turned OFF all weekend.  (Remember when a real test of humanity would be, like, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro or something?  Yeah...no.)

We don't have TV anyway, so that's nothing new to go without, but I turned off the computer and didn't go in my office except for severely necessary work-related things.  I turned off the wifi.  And my e-book.  And my Facebook.  And Twitter.  I used my phone just to CALL people.  (Actually, just to receive calls; I even refused to call anyone). 

Instead I baked and sat in the hot tub with hot cocoa, and I slept IN with my husband, and I laughed my head off with my kids, and I very slowly and deliberately read a paper copy of Shakespeare's Richard II (because I'm a medieval English history freak, that's why).  Oh, and I didn't pay any bills or talk about money, which made it almost like they didn't exist.  (almost)

...and?

It was AWESOME. 

Aside from spending the weekend saying to myself, "Huh.  I'm having my own protest about Black Friday and consumerism and the overuse TO DEATH of technology and social media...and no one even knows about it, because I can't get online to tell them."

So, while I didn't go shopping, I did reconnect with books with PAPER pages, and I fell in love all over again with William Shakespeare and with my house and my family.  I cleaned and did laundry and just lived here, instead of sitting at my desk (which is also *here*, but sort of doesn't count as being home, because when I'm at my desk, it qualifies as *working*, even though yes, I'm technically at home).

I'm planning to spend as much of December as unplugged as possible--I can't wait to see how it goes.

Try it sometime.  You won't believe the stuff you will get done, plus--sometimes a great book, a quiet afternoon, a clean living room and a cup of perfect coffee are really just what the doctor ordered.


5 comments:

  1. I'm disabled and thus unemployed. After our last move, it was 2 months before we had any internet. I read a lot of books. I lost count at 30. 5 or 6 of those were Shakespeare plays. It was good to read some actual paper books again, but I was so happy when we finally got online again!

    -Doug in Oakland

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  2. I truly do not understand the black Friday thing. Why are people so willing to give up their humanity to save $40 on a television? It's appalling.

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    1. Appalling is absolutely the word!! Disgusting, embarrassing, insane also come to mind.

      Self-imposed exile from news feeds and technology last weekend went a long way toward making me feel like I wasn't contributing to that nonsense. :D

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    2. Since I have been back to FL the dumb TV is on like all the time
      & I realized that, while entertaining, it totally robs me of reading
      time. I am glad you are reading actual books with paper pages.
      Like the hot chocolate, there is something so comforting in reading
      & handling them.
      Yer Mom

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