Don’t you have one? Perhaps it’s just me with my overly digital lifestyle.
Often, the moments I appreciate the most go back to nature and the natural. Stepping outside into my garden. Touching grass, touching my tree. Turning paper pages in a real book.
It’s nice that, while reading The Lord of the Rings, I can look up all the words I don’t know on my phone. I still wish it was a physical dictionary. Maybe I’ll get one soon.
“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest,” Bilbo tells the wizard. Those, too, come with a real-world bonus. The other day, I was on a work trip in Switzerland. The best part was not on the official schedule: walking the longest treetop path in the world. It only took 90 minutes, but, by the end of it, I had seen trees, mountains, rivers, and lush meadows rolling across gently waving hills. The only sound came from the crickets. It was wonderful.
The more our lives become dominated by technology, be it software, screens, or robots, the more grounding in reality we’ll need. A ritual here. A deliberate slowdown there. The only way to protect our humanity is to do at least a handful of things entirely the human way. A future where that seems impossible is not here yet, but it might come. Why not build the right habits early?
It’s okay to have a craving for the analog. In fact, if you don’t, you may want to cultivate one. Have fun in the Matrix, but remember which planet you live on.
