Well, it has been a long while since I have been on here. I should be inspired by my very prolific writer/artist wife who manages to put up several posts a week. I have had a few different ideas on my mind but wasn't sure how to write about them.
A few months back I thumbed through a journal that Na and I shared as we reflected on chapters from Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution. He talks about spiritual bulimia, this sort of pattern where we take in as much as we can and we spit right out with those of us around us, not taking the time to absorb and digest it. While he was discussing it on the level of spiritual matters it got me thinking about information.
We have so much right at our fingertips with lightning fast internet and our 4g networks and XmRadio and tv. I find that I am out there looking for new things, new information to absorb and read all the time. The internet is such an amazing resource for random information. What I have noticed is the ability for retention is significantly reduced because I have all this information right at hand. Why bother to really remember something when I could just look it up?
Another strange and possibly scary thing is that I find that I read a lot of things without really reading them. If that makes any sense, I have noticed I will click on a bunch of articles and lose interest before I finish or find that I am simply skimming it for interesting parts. As I close the window or tab, I often walk away with not much more than I started with in my mind.
I think that part of this is linked in to an addiction to accessing the information. I find myself wanting to log on and see what information I can find when I could be doing more important things. I even look forward to it when I am doing other things. Hours and hours go away and there is still more out there. Perhaps this is a personal slump, but I wonder in this day and age where we are constantly distracted if there are others, many others, out there like me? I find it disturbing that my consumption is like that of what Shane Claiborne calls spiritual bulimia, I graze the information without really processing it and move on. I have observed as well that due to not wanting to dwell on a certain subject for too long I can often avoid issues that are important and that run deeper. Instead I might spend a long time researching something of little substance.
It is kind of an empty feeling, as if you are going in each day to distract yourself from something else. I think that this simply comes in different forms. People distract themselves by spending hours playing video games, alcohol, tv, drugs, sports, obsessing over almost anything. What is it? Is it knowing that we are called to more responsibility and accountability and yet are overwhelmed with it? Are we afraid to face ourselves or the questions that persist when we STOP? Are we avoiding the people around us, avoiding deep, real relationships? Are we drowning out God's voice with noise? Are we avoiding Him?
