One of my favorite anachronistic acts on the seed list is the one that costs nothing, requires no skill, gains energy, builds concentration, is free to everybody, is secular yet leans toward the spiritual, and is utterly at odds with the Machine: slow down.
Dec 21, 2023·edited Dec 21, 2023Liked by Peco, Ruth Gaskovski
I am encouraged by the discovery that I already do many of these things (and see many more that I would like to try)! Sometimes it is easy to look past all the good in one's life and focus on despair or discouragement, but so many people will read this list and think, gee, maybe I'm not doing so badly! I hold babies all the time and we banished our TV to the basement years ago!
It’s such a wonderful and encouraging list- to think that even if I am not the one called to milk goats or knit my own socks, there are people in the world (right here on Substack!) who are maintaining these important ways of living. None of us can do everything but all of us can do something.
I loved reading through these "seeds." After reading this post and previous one, I'm feeling even more encouraged to stick with my anachronistic habits and to perhaps add some new ones. I will happily continue using a planner and reading in public, and I don't ever want to connect my email (especially my work email) to my phone. Another "seed" that occurred to me as I read this post was taking the time to thoughtfully and carefully wrap presents. Gift bags are easy, but there is something much more satisfying about putting a gift in a box --if possible-- and taking the time to wrap it (paper, scissors, tape, ribbon, tag, etc.). It's a simple action that can be infused with great love, and it anchors me to a slower, more human pace.
Thank you, Ruth and Peco for putting this together. I'm surprised that I've actually implemented a few of these practices since my digital detox but am encouraged now to take up a few more in the coming year.
My wife's grandmother is absolutely insistent that I give her a Christmas list each year and that it be on Amazon so she can keep track of everything. Instead of fighting about this I decided to use Amazon for good and used the opportunity to acquire a canning kit. So after Christmas, I can finally learn to can food and make jams! Very much looking forward to being more weird in public and private!
Some great ideas. Not that only great ideas are worth considering. Simpler is almost always better, a sentiment at odds with modernity. Yet, the simpler need not be anti-modern: cf. the Amish, Quakers, and the modern survivalists. And, shifting back one or two generations is hardly an answer to 21st-century transhumanism. Just adopting older technologies is often not much more than virtue signaling.
The simplest act of sanity is an inward activity; it is thinking for ourselves instead of reacting to the crowd, either copying others' behavior or reacting mindlessly by behaving oppositely. Hannah Arndt warned, "It is more than likely that men, if they were ever to lose the appetite for meaning we call thinking and cease to ask unanswerable questions, would lose not only the ability to produce those thought-things that we call works of art but also the capacity to ask all the answerable questions upon which every civilization is founded." (The Life of the Mind)
By the twenty-first century, we have nearly reached that point. Being constantly tethered to our electronic devices and or in crowds of others, we scarcely allow ourselves time to think--to be able to find meaning. Thus art--the production of beauty and meaning--has practically disappeared from our lives.
Dec 21, 2023·edited Dec 21, 2023Liked by Peco, Ruth Gaskovski
Printing this post now - I'm looking forward to reading it over the next week. Thank you for taking the time to compile and sort all of the responses! (Also, since reading your prior post, I have decided to hand write driving directions instead of relying on my phone's map to navigate. I have lived in my city for nearly 3 years now. I have a couple of issues: I keep using my phone GPS even to go to places I know by heart, also I still go to many new-to-me places these days. Having to take the time to write out the turn by turn directions was tedious and required me to give forethought to my route. But I did it (I think about 8 times)! I also, even though I had the directions on a little spiral notebook nearby, took many wrong turns going from A to B. Ugh! I realized how little confidence I have navigating on my own. And I also realized that I would now be needing to devote some mental powers to thinking about my surroundings instead of just zoning out and relying on my little machine to direct me. Only a week in and I can already see some of the hard/inconvenient yet good work that's happening in my heart and mind. I'm hoping to keep it up -- especially knowing I can come back to this list that represents so many other people eschewing ease and convenience for something richer. Thanks again!
Lovely stuff. Just smiled at making, instead of buying, Christmas presents. Because I'm baking cakes for my neighbours this year, instead of buying them goodies from the supermarket. How malt loaf will go down with the rural Normans does remain to be seen, though haha!
I love these lists but I question if any of these things in themselves make us more authentic. I think we need to be careful about these becoming performative rituals to prove something to others. When I was younger I believed the evil world would end in ten years. I felt overly responsible for baby seals being clubbed to death. I basically stopped eating because the modern world was so cruel. I was upset about pregnancy because I was contributing to overpopulation. All this seemed like resistance but it was a form of pride. Not saying everyone’s being prideful but I think we can beat ourselves up whether we buy plastic or not 😅
I was thinking of this post, Ruth, as I was at a pediatrician’s visit with my baby yesterday. It was a standard well child visit. Usually, the pediatrician is typing things into a computer while she talks. As a result, you end up talking to the pediatrician while she isn’t looking at you - instead her attention is on the screen. This pediatrician did not turn on the computer. Instead, she had a note pad and looked at you while you talked. What a profound change.
I predict the sentiments in these "seeds" will become strategically important for many readers through the time we share together. It makes me so happy to know I am not alone in my choices against the Machine. Be happy and well everyone!
I have shared this article with our reading group with the intention that they read it and we could discuss the content over a post Christmas meal and meeting. It will be interesting for me personally. I will not even remind them on the night and just wait and see what happens. It could be wonderful or maybe a complete flop.
So encouraged to find many of my current practices on these wonderful and extensive lists! Thank you for compiling and sharing with us! Little by little, we hold onto hope amidst the noise and distractions. I'm very much looking forward to continuing and adding to my simple acts of resistance in the new year!
Oh, what fun this is - thank you for compiling such a resonant list! Also, that quote from the Hobbit film...it's one of my husband's favorites, and we always find it remarkable that it's in the movie, not the book!
One of my favorite anachronistic acts on the seed list is the one that costs nothing, requires no skill, gains energy, builds concentration, is free to everybody, is secular yet leans toward the spiritual, and is utterly at odds with the Machine: slow down.
I am encouraged by the discovery that I already do many of these things (and see many more that I would like to try)! Sometimes it is easy to look past all the good in one's life and focus on despair or discouragement, but so many people will read this list and think, gee, maybe I'm not doing so badly! I hold babies all the time and we banished our TV to the basement years ago!
All is not lost, friends!
It’s such a wonderful and encouraging list- to think that even if I am not the one called to milk goats or knit my own socks, there are people in the world (right here on Substack!) who are maintaining these important ways of living. None of us can do everything but all of us can do something.
I loved reading through these "seeds." After reading this post and previous one, I'm feeling even more encouraged to stick with my anachronistic habits and to perhaps add some new ones. I will happily continue using a planner and reading in public, and I don't ever want to connect my email (especially my work email) to my phone. Another "seed" that occurred to me as I read this post was taking the time to thoughtfully and carefully wrap presents. Gift bags are easy, but there is something much more satisfying about putting a gift in a box --if possible-- and taking the time to wrap it (paper, scissors, tape, ribbon, tag, etc.). It's a simple action that can be infused with great love, and it anchors me to a slower, more human pace.
Thank you, Ruth and Peco for putting this together. I'm surprised that I've actually implemented a few of these practices since my digital detox but am encouraged now to take up a few more in the coming year.
My wife's grandmother is absolutely insistent that I give her a Christmas list each year and that it be on Amazon so she can keep track of everything. Instead of fighting about this I decided to use Amazon for good and used the opportunity to acquire a canning kit. So after Christmas, I can finally learn to can food and make jams! Very much looking forward to being more weird in public and private!
So many great suggestions here. I’m thinking of starting a Little Free Library at my place next year thanks to your suggestion.
Some great ideas. Not that only great ideas are worth considering. Simpler is almost always better, a sentiment at odds with modernity. Yet, the simpler need not be anti-modern: cf. the Amish, Quakers, and the modern survivalists. And, shifting back one or two generations is hardly an answer to 21st-century transhumanism. Just adopting older technologies is often not much more than virtue signaling.
The simplest act of sanity is an inward activity; it is thinking for ourselves instead of reacting to the crowd, either copying others' behavior or reacting mindlessly by behaving oppositely. Hannah Arndt warned, "It is more than likely that men, if they were ever to lose the appetite for meaning we call thinking and cease to ask unanswerable questions, would lose not only the ability to produce those thought-things that we call works of art but also the capacity to ask all the answerable questions upon which every civilization is founded." (The Life of the Mind)
By the twenty-first century, we have nearly reached that point. Being constantly tethered to our electronic devices and or in crowds of others, we scarcely allow ourselves time to think--to be able to find meaning. Thus art--the production of beauty and meaning--has practically disappeared from our lives.
Printing this post now - I'm looking forward to reading it over the next week. Thank you for taking the time to compile and sort all of the responses! (Also, since reading your prior post, I have decided to hand write driving directions instead of relying on my phone's map to navigate. I have lived in my city for nearly 3 years now. I have a couple of issues: I keep using my phone GPS even to go to places I know by heart, also I still go to many new-to-me places these days. Having to take the time to write out the turn by turn directions was tedious and required me to give forethought to my route. But I did it (I think about 8 times)! I also, even though I had the directions on a little spiral notebook nearby, took many wrong turns going from A to B. Ugh! I realized how little confidence I have navigating on my own. And I also realized that I would now be needing to devote some mental powers to thinking about my surroundings instead of just zoning out and relying on my little machine to direct me. Only a week in and I can already see some of the hard/inconvenient yet good work that's happening in my heart and mind. I'm hoping to keep it up -- especially knowing I can come back to this list that represents so many other people eschewing ease and convenience for something richer. Thanks again!
Lovely stuff. Just smiled at making, instead of buying, Christmas presents. Because I'm baking cakes for my neighbours this year, instead of buying them goodies from the supermarket. How malt loaf will go down with the rural Normans does remain to be seen, though haha!
I love these lists but I question if any of these things in themselves make us more authentic. I think we need to be careful about these becoming performative rituals to prove something to others. When I was younger I believed the evil world would end in ten years. I felt overly responsible for baby seals being clubbed to death. I basically stopped eating because the modern world was so cruel. I was upset about pregnancy because I was contributing to overpopulation. All this seemed like resistance but it was a form of pride. Not saying everyone’s being prideful but I think we can beat ourselves up whether we buy plastic or not 😅
I was thinking of this post, Ruth, as I was at a pediatrician’s visit with my baby yesterday. It was a standard well child visit. Usually, the pediatrician is typing things into a computer while she talks. As a result, you end up talking to the pediatrician while she isn’t looking at you - instead her attention is on the screen. This pediatrician did not turn on the computer. Instead, she had a note pad and looked at you while you talked. What a profound change.
I predict the sentiments in these "seeds" will become strategically important for many readers through the time we share together. It makes me so happy to know I am not alone in my choices against the Machine. Be happy and well everyone!
Merry Christmas!
I have shared this article with our reading group with the intention that they read it and we could discuss the content over a post Christmas meal and meeting. It will be interesting for me personally. I will not even remind them on the night and just wait and see what happens. It could be wonderful or maybe a complete flop.
So encouraged to find many of my current practices on these wonderful and extensive lists! Thank you for compiling and sharing with us! Little by little, we hold onto hope amidst the noise and distractions. I'm very much looking forward to continuing and adding to my simple acts of resistance in the new year!
Oh, what fun this is - thank you for compiling such a resonant list! Also, that quote from the Hobbit film...it's one of my husband's favorites, and we always find it remarkable that it's in the movie, not the book!