My family and I have given up using a fridge, although we still have a freezer to cool the cold blocks. None of us have a car and we walk everywhere, which is a delight in the lovely market town in rural Shropshire that we live in. We don't have a TV and never buy any processed food at all - everything is cooked from scratch. We have also completely stopped shopping at supermarkets and buy from local shops. We get our meat directly from the farmer, which takes a bit more effort and organisation but is well worth it. Unfortunately I work online and have to design all my courses online too, so technology is still omnipresent in my life, but at least I can leave my phone at home when I go out - I never leave my house with my phone unless I am staying somewhere overnight. It doesn't get answered very often, and I have never linked my email to my phone. In future I aim to give up my mobile altogether. Lastly, we try to pay with cash whenever possible, which is most of the time these days. Ours is a very cash-friendly town.
You pulled me in with "being weird" and I got so much more. While I won't be giving up the convenience of my smart phone (as a phone and camera mostly, and I've learned that I don't HAVE to answer it), our family has lived a slower pace than most in many of the same ways you describe here. Was it worth it? Oh, yes. Especially when I see my young adult sons pull out a book of classic literature or poetry while they are here visiting, along with a notebook to journal ideas in. And when they are stressed they still ask me to come for a visit because they need a long walk with mom to talk things out. In my own life still, my long morning walks, meditation time, and reading and knitting in public while waiting, has always drawn looks from those around me. Thanks for the reminder that, yes, I'm weird, but I'm happy and not alone in the world!
So much food for thought here! I feel like I fit in so well with you, Ruth, and your fellow *weird* readers. My life is so out of step with 99% of the people I know that I just assume what I'm doing is unusual and I am more than okay with it. Some things we do:
-Always hand write and hand address Christmas cards. This means that we do not send out a mass mailing of 250 cards, but it is far more intimate and personal. I would rather send out 30 handwritten cards than hundreds of impersonal ones. Quality over quantity, every time.
-Read physical books. I remember way back in my early 20s (this was before smart phones) when I commuted on the metro in Washington, DC, I would read books during my commute. It was fascinating to occasionally have strangers comment on the book I was reading. Such a great way to connect with people. Reading physical books *today* when out in public is even more weird, but I love it.
-Growing my own flowers. This is a new endeavor and it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. The hand-cut bouquets I put on our table literally cannot be purchased from a store because the flowers I grow aren't for sale anywhere. So fulfilling.
-Attending a Messiah Sing. My husband's family and my own family loves to attend an annual performance of Handel's Messiah with the chorus part sung by both a choir and the audience. I know I'm with kindred spirits when there are stacks of scores of the Messiah at the door for everyone to use. I didn't see a single phone out at the concert just a few days ago.
One aspect of this that is challenging is that it doesn't make much sense to be anachronistic simply to be contrary. We must ask ourselves "why" we're doing something a certain way, and be honest with the answer. One example: while I love sending handwritten letters, I also love sending voice messages to dear friends. Without fail, I get a reply that they loved hearing my voice so much. Sometimes, it is okay to embrace speedy communication. I think that is what makes our current situation so unique (and difficult): we can *choose* between walking or driving, sending a letter or sending a text. The burden becomes how should we then choose?
Just this morning I was kneeling in front of my wood stove, getting a fire going, after it had sat cold for a couple of days. My thoughts alternated between between, "Come on, fire, hurry up and get hot enough that I can leave you and go do something else," and "I love this! And the house is getting all toasty by means of a beautiful flame," and "This may not be cheaper than natural gas for heating my house, but I don't care. Hang efficiency!" I realized that any day when I spend time tending a fire is a very satisfying one, because it makes me feel like a Traditional Human instead of a Distracted Modern.
I couldn't have read your article at a better time. Lately I've been seeing my smart phone as a wily trickster that leads me to plan and commit to more projects and obligations than are healthy. The speed of communication means that my natural impulsiveness in carrying out my ideas bears fruit too fast, not providing the kind of time that used to be necessary to accomplish all the logistics. Then I suffer the consequences of overload. I have to start pretending harder that I have no phone; if I went back to writing letters I would gain back the time spent with pen and paper, from all the errands and events that never happened. I would have spent more time at home, tending the fire or the garden. That would be the best.
There is so much to love about your article, I can't comment on it all. But I wanted to say one thing about the flash mob singing "The Hallelujah Chorus." It's a very moving song anywhere, and the expressions on some of the people listening were also poignant. What brought me personally to tears was seeing first one, then several other singers and at least one child watcher jump up on their chairs; because though it is unusual to see anyone singing a piece like that standing on a chair, many people did so at the (unusual) wedding of my late husband and me.
Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023Liked by Peco, Ruth Gaskovski
I hardly know where to start with a comment here. There are so many rich aspects to this post.
- I am inspired to build a Little Free Library for my front yard, and am thinking that this might be a wonderful homeschooling project! My children love carpentry but I haven't done much with them since building out chicken coop a few years ago. Thank you for this idea!
- We use a camp wagon when we walk to the grocery store. It's a good alternative to a stroller for a 3-4 year-old, too, because you can pop a young child in there with the groceries for the walk back, if it is a long walk (it's about 3.25 miles round trip to our nearest grocery store). It also allows me to send my older kids to the store for more items than they can easily carry back.
- I will add that switching to writing by hand is a wonderful tool to give yourself, children, and students who are struggling with writer's block. When you can't get started in a Word doc, switch to a legal pad for the first paragraph. Or vice versa. I find this very helpful and routinely suggest it to my students.
- I am so glad you mention leaving children alone here. Children *must* find ways to amuse themselves without adult direction and without screens, or they will lack the skills of resourcefulness, creativity, and self-motivation that they will need as healthy adults.
- I will continue to ponder this essay over the coming week. Thank you so much!!!
Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023Liked by Peco, Ruth Gaskovski
It's not that radical, but using a pocket notebook as a planner instead of my phone, with a #2 pencil, is about as anachronistic as I get.
We're delving into devices (iPads) for our eight and eleven-year-old this Christmas, but our plan is to lock them down to just video calls, drawing programs, and a music player, with perhaps access to a couple of the learning web sites we've let them use, but with a time limit. No browser, no games, NO social media. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to go back to what we had in the 90's with a discman or stereo, or even an mp3 player. The ones we've purchased broke soon after or, in the case of the mp3 player, had atrocious user interfaces.
One thing I think even an Amish person might recognize as a technological improvement that is pro-social is video chat. The ability to not only hear tone of voice, but read facial expressions, is definitely an improvement. Definitely much better than texting. We live on a busy rural road far enough from any friends where walking to see them is just not an option, so getting them some sort of face-to-face time on days when we can't meet up with friends has been a good thing.
I hope we're not making a mistake, and that we don't fold to letting them install games so they "have something to do" on long car rides. It's on us to hold the line with our limits. On the other hand, we're trying to raise them with a healthy relationship to technology--e.g. limited screen time, use for education, knowing how to type and research online, healthy communication with friends, not getting sucked into the false approval of social media or the false accomplishment of video gaming or the never-ending feeds of algorithms. We have to somehow prepare them for the world they will enter, so that they have some immunity to algorithms and habits established before they head off on their own.
They do get plenty of time outside, reading books, and doing arts and crafts by hand. I suppose one of the greatest anachronisms among my kids and their friends is that they are all allowed to use very sharp knives unsupervised in the woods.
My current way to connect myself to other humans, to a tradition, and to my own body, is to learn the tango. No matter how addicted many are to their phones, the latter are quite forgotten when dancing, or in classes, or practising.
I am also learning Argentine Spanish, as I have run away to Buenos Aires to dance. I talk to everyone I can, make notes in longhand, and carry my little book of verbs everywhere.
I feel so much more alive than those times when I could only connect with others via a screen.
I really *really* enjoyed this one. I have been trying to live slower and unconnected myself, but am definitely finding it difficult with the people surrounding me. I have tried multiple times to ditch my smart phone and go for a flip phone, but as a person who gets most of their human connection with conversations on WhatsApp from my friends or family who live all over, I've struggled to do so. Apps like WhatsApp and Signal are the only way I get to speak to them. Though this is great for seeing pictures of my nieces and nephews, it makes me ponder on the relationship I have with the people I spend lots of time chatting with. For those friends I don’t see in real life very often, I wonder if I am only talking to them because it is easy? If these apps didn’t exist and I had to make an effort to call this person or go visit them, would I make the effort as often as I do to message them?
What would these relationships look like if the internet did not exist? This is where I think a lifestyle change must start to happen. We can only change so much by turning notifications off or by swapping our devices. Building real relationships with real people can’t happen exclusively over messaging apps, whether these are typed into a T9 keyboard or a qwerty one. Of course, I don’t want to take away the opportunity I’ve had to meet so many amazing people online, but I believe we have made a mistake in believing that these online relationships are equal alternatives.
I'm still feeling very called to be phoneless, but perhaps I might settle with dumbing down my phone and turning my 4G off every so often.
This post is inspiring me in the best way to become more weird than I already am - so many beautiful thoughts and suggestions here! I love writing out ideas for online creative projects in a notebook before typing or editing, and I love how you describe that building “an unmachined foundation.” I would add writing handwritten letters in public to reading and knitting as great ways to start conversations with strangers - it’s always fun when I’m at a cafe catching up on some snail mail and someone comes up and says, “I love that you’re doing that!”
The section about Vespers is so wonderful. When I was at Easter Mass this year, I felt so strongly what I’ve felt at other Catholic services, how important religious traditions are in connecting me to these deep, deep roots through which life-giving strength flows. Those are the best type of time machine, but I also had a time machine experience recently at the National Portrait Gallery. After a few hours of wandering and contemplating art from centuries past, I happened to catch sight of a garish neon sigh intruding itself through a window blind, and I realized how wonderful it had been to escape the modern world for awhile. 😂
One of the best anachronistic habits I have adopted in recent years has been gardening. It has been so wonderful to try to shift my rhythm to match the wise rhythms of nature. Adopting and raising a kitten, while I suppose not obviously anachronistic, has also been a very healthy and sanity-restoring experience, it’s been so inspiring and enjoyable to observe and learn from my cat’s natural rhythms. Excited to read others’ ideas in the comments as well. Thank you for this lovely post!
After reading https://john-steppling.com/2023/02/falling-out-of-love/, which mentions polaroid cameras I became interested in the oversaturation of photos we take and at least what I find in myself almost never look at again or look upon fondly.
"in which some form of saturation has been reached. I have two thousand pics on my smartphone. Most will disappear when my phone dies and I won’t miss them." Which I unfortunately agree with, even significant milestones feel flat in my phone crowded album of accidental screenshots.
This led me to purchase an old polaroid for $50 which works just fine. The film is quite pricey ($3-4/photo) but I am enjoying the weight of the camera when I take it with me and because I can't take a handful of quick photos they end up having more significance to me. Not to mention that the photos at their core are not 0's and 1's but feel more tangible with how they slowly develop to a tinted image separate from the pristine perfectness of my phones camera. My aim is to bring the camera to more events that one day turns into a wonderful album to flip through with our future children and grandchildren some day.
I have adopted daily journaling and creative writing with pencil and pen, just the run of the mill ones and have found it be helpful for staying organized. One interesting development was that I as soon as I learned cursive foreswore it, then after a few months of writing I took it up again and find it also lends a certain weight to what is being written. I had not yet considered a fountain or drip pen but it brought to mind C.S Lewis
- "C. S. Lewis also used a dip pen—not a fountain pen. He liked to dip the pen every 4-5 words and he would whisper his next 4-5 words aloud before writing them, to make sure they flowed. He believed it was important to make sure the words sounded right to the ear first." https://nadinebrandes.com/2017/10/18/the-lost-arts-of-writing/
Maybe it is time to consider a switch to fountain pens.
Lovely article. One of the most meaningful things I've experienced is delving into handspinning! Drop spindles are an inexpensive and technologically ancient way to experience yarn-making itself in the very way humans have made it for thousands and thousands of years. There is nothing like knitting your own handspun yarn!
I would like to sow SO many more seeds of this sort, but here are some practices I've found to be life-giving that fall under this category. (I think of it as sand in the gears so modern life doesn't get too slick!)
-never replaced the microwave. it broke two years ago.
-I too draft all my essays on paper. it was the KEY to realizing my best work.
-walking in the woods (with my phone off).
-strict specific hours for my phone.
-briefly greeting the day outside every morning when I wake without looking at clocks, thermometers, phones or whatever.
-following the liturgical calendar.
-using a hand grinder for coffee (I don't always but love when I do).
-reading the newspapers at the library.
-not letting my kids use the computers at the library!
-walking to the library, the co-op, the thrift store, wherever we can.
-that time I XC skied to the grocery store - loved it!
-foraging for food. always gets weird looks and it's free and fun and delicious!
Throughout my teenage and young adult life I considered myself an introvert in the extreme sense -- what I didn't realize is that I was simply afraid of people, and putting myself forward to initiate conversation and pursue friendship. However, finding myself at a critical juncture and wishing to test certain assumptions I was carrying about other people and myself, I chose to begin my grand experiment: by being the first to initiate conversation. What I found was that most people are craving social interaction and depth, hoping to be seen, yet are at the same time afraid of being the first to interact.
So my somewhat anachronistic practice is this: to be the first to open the door to connection; to say hello, introduce myself, and be willing to be a friend. In the past five-ish years of practicing this, I have not once (that I can recall) met with push-back or unwillingness, and have continued to be challenged to notice people, and to let them know that they are seen.
I once heard a counselor use the words "go first" when addressing this issue, and I find that to be a great introduction to the practice.
P.S. Coffee shops are a great place to start this practice, but it's also worth doing at the grocery store, the bank, or the gas pump.
Inspiring! I want to approach my hopes and prayers for the new year with these marvelous thoughts in mind.
I especially loved the Vespers as Byzantine Time Machine. My family is not Eastern Orthodox, though we love the EO and occasionally come to our friends’ EO church. Our church is also blessedly a Time Machine, but to the medieval German mass—a rare gem of a highly liturgical, confessional LCMS church.
Following the historic church year and practices, writing icons for my church, reading in public and as a pastime (no tv, though we will of course enjoy a movie or show occasionally on the laptop!) is as anachronistic as we get right now. Also approaching home education the Charlotte Mason/Classical way, with as much time outdoors and in friends’ homes as possible.
Taking pilgrimages to familiar places, using a flip phone, and maps are the biggest goals I’d love to work toward this year! Also writing letters to several friends of mine again would be another welcome anachronism.
I like to keep a paper calendar. I just enjoy the act of writing with a pencil and erasing.
My family and I have given up using a fridge, although we still have a freezer to cool the cold blocks. None of us have a car and we walk everywhere, which is a delight in the lovely market town in rural Shropshire that we live in. We don't have a TV and never buy any processed food at all - everything is cooked from scratch. We have also completely stopped shopping at supermarkets and buy from local shops. We get our meat directly from the farmer, which takes a bit more effort and organisation but is well worth it. Unfortunately I work online and have to design all my courses online too, so technology is still omnipresent in my life, but at least I can leave my phone at home when I go out - I never leave my house with my phone unless I am staying somewhere overnight. It doesn't get answered very often, and I have never linked my email to my phone. In future I aim to give up my mobile altogether. Lastly, we try to pay with cash whenever possible, which is most of the time these days. Ours is a very cash-friendly town.
You pulled me in with "being weird" and I got so much more. While I won't be giving up the convenience of my smart phone (as a phone and camera mostly, and I've learned that I don't HAVE to answer it), our family has lived a slower pace than most in many of the same ways you describe here. Was it worth it? Oh, yes. Especially when I see my young adult sons pull out a book of classic literature or poetry while they are here visiting, along with a notebook to journal ideas in. And when they are stressed they still ask me to come for a visit because they need a long walk with mom to talk things out. In my own life still, my long morning walks, meditation time, and reading and knitting in public while waiting, has always drawn looks from those around me. Thanks for the reminder that, yes, I'm weird, but I'm happy and not alone in the world!
So much food for thought here! I feel like I fit in so well with you, Ruth, and your fellow *weird* readers. My life is so out of step with 99% of the people I know that I just assume what I'm doing is unusual and I am more than okay with it. Some things we do:
-Always hand write and hand address Christmas cards. This means that we do not send out a mass mailing of 250 cards, but it is far more intimate and personal. I would rather send out 30 handwritten cards than hundreds of impersonal ones. Quality over quantity, every time.
-Read physical books. I remember way back in my early 20s (this was before smart phones) when I commuted on the metro in Washington, DC, I would read books during my commute. It was fascinating to occasionally have strangers comment on the book I was reading. Such a great way to connect with people. Reading physical books *today* when out in public is even more weird, but I love it.
-Growing my own flowers. This is a new endeavor and it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. The hand-cut bouquets I put on our table literally cannot be purchased from a store because the flowers I grow aren't for sale anywhere. So fulfilling.
-Attending a Messiah Sing. My husband's family and my own family loves to attend an annual performance of Handel's Messiah with the chorus part sung by both a choir and the audience. I know I'm with kindred spirits when there are stacks of scores of the Messiah at the door for everyone to use. I didn't see a single phone out at the concert just a few days ago.
One aspect of this that is challenging is that it doesn't make much sense to be anachronistic simply to be contrary. We must ask ourselves "why" we're doing something a certain way, and be honest with the answer. One example: while I love sending handwritten letters, I also love sending voice messages to dear friends. Without fail, I get a reply that they loved hearing my voice so much. Sometimes, it is okay to embrace speedy communication. I think that is what makes our current situation so unique (and difficult): we can *choose* between walking or driving, sending a letter or sending a text. The burden becomes how should we then choose?
Here are some ways I am attempting to "sow anachronism"
Lighting a candle each morning and at meal times
Making bread by hand (particularly, this recipe: https://alexandracooks.com/2012/11/07/my-mothers-peasant-bread-the-best-easiest-bread-you-will-ever-make/
Playing the piano in my home
Singing together as a family (with no accompaniment from devices)
Sitting down on the couch and reading picture books with my sons
Reading chapter books aloud with our children at their bedtime
Staring into space, smiling at strangers, or just thinking while waiting in lines (instead of scrolling my phone)
Making my own birthday cards for people - writing the person's name on the front and coloring it in with colored pencils
Just this morning I was kneeling in front of my wood stove, getting a fire going, after it had sat cold for a couple of days. My thoughts alternated between between, "Come on, fire, hurry up and get hot enough that I can leave you and go do something else," and "I love this! And the house is getting all toasty by means of a beautiful flame," and "This may not be cheaper than natural gas for heating my house, but I don't care. Hang efficiency!" I realized that any day when I spend time tending a fire is a very satisfying one, because it makes me feel like a Traditional Human instead of a Distracted Modern.
I couldn't have read your article at a better time. Lately I've been seeing my smart phone as a wily trickster that leads me to plan and commit to more projects and obligations than are healthy. The speed of communication means that my natural impulsiveness in carrying out my ideas bears fruit too fast, not providing the kind of time that used to be necessary to accomplish all the logistics. Then I suffer the consequences of overload. I have to start pretending harder that I have no phone; if I went back to writing letters I would gain back the time spent with pen and paper, from all the errands and events that never happened. I would have spent more time at home, tending the fire or the garden. That would be the best.
There is so much to love about your article, I can't comment on it all. But I wanted to say one thing about the flash mob singing "The Hallelujah Chorus." It's a very moving song anywhere, and the expressions on some of the people listening were also poignant. What brought me personally to tears was seeing first one, then several other singers and at least one child watcher jump up on their chairs; because though it is unusual to see anyone singing a piece like that standing on a chair, many people did so at the (unusual) wedding of my late husband and me.
Thank you, Ruth, for encouraging me today!
I hardly know where to start with a comment here. There are so many rich aspects to this post.
- I am inspired to build a Little Free Library for my front yard, and am thinking that this might be a wonderful homeschooling project! My children love carpentry but I haven't done much with them since building out chicken coop a few years ago. Thank you for this idea!
- We use a camp wagon when we walk to the grocery store. It's a good alternative to a stroller for a 3-4 year-old, too, because you can pop a young child in there with the groceries for the walk back, if it is a long walk (it's about 3.25 miles round trip to our nearest grocery store). It also allows me to send my older kids to the store for more items than they can easily carry back.
- I will add that switching to writing by hand is a wonderful tool to give yourself, children, and students who are struggling with writer's block. When you can't get started in a Word doc, switch to a legal pad for the first paragraph. Or vice versa. I find this very helpful and routinely suggest it to my students.
- I am so glad you mention leaving children alone here. Children *must* find ways to amuse themselves without adult direction and without screens, or they will lack the skills of resourcefulness, creativity, and self-motivation that they will need as healthy adults.
- I will continue to ponder this essay over the coming week. Thank you so much!!!
It's not that radical, but using a pocket notebook as a planner instead of my phone, with a #2 pencil, is about as anachronistic as I get.
We're delving into devices (iPads) for our eight and eleven-year-old this Christmas, but our plan is to lock them down to just video calls, drawing programs, and a music player, with perhaps access to a couple of the learning web sites we've let them use, but with a time limit. No browser, no games, NO social media. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to go back to what we had in the 90's with a discman or stereo, or even an mp3 player. The ones we've purchased broke soon after or, in the case of the mp3 player, had atrocious user interfaces.
One thing I think even an Amish person might recognize as a technological improvement that is pro-social is video chat. The ability to not only hear tone of voice, but read facial expressions, is definitely an improvement. Definitely much better than texting. We live on a busy rural road far enough from any friends where walking to see them is just not an option, so getting them some sort of face-to-face time on days when we can't meet up with friends has been a good thing.
I hope we're not making a mistake, and that we don't fold to letting them install games so they "have something to do" on long car rides. It's on us to hold the line with our limits. On the other hand, we're trying to raise them with a healthy relationship to technology--e.g. limited screen time, use for education, knowing how to type and research online, healthy communication with friends, not getting sucked into the false approval of social media or the false accomplishment of video gaming or the never-ending feeds of algorithms. We have to somehow prepare them for the world they will enter, so that they have some immunity to algorithms and habits established before they head off on their own.
They do get plenty of time outside, reading books, and doing arts and crafts by hand. I suppose one of the greatest anachronisms among my kids and their friends is that they are all allowed to use very sharp knives unsupervised in the woods.
A lovely article; thank you.
My current way to connect myself to other humans, to a tradition, and to my own body, is to learn the tango. No matter how addicted many are to their phones, the latter are quite forgotten when dancing, or in classes, or practising.
I am also learning Argentine Spanish, as I have run away to Buenos Aires to dance. I talk to everyone I can, make notes in longhand, and carry my little book of verbs everywhere.
I feel so much more alive than those times when I could only connect with others via a screen.
I really *really* enjoyed this one. I have been trying to live slower and unconnected myself, but am definitely finding it difficult with the people surrounding me. I have tried multiple times to ditch my smart phone and go for a flip phone, but as a person who gets most of their human connection with conversations on WhatsApp from my friends or family who live all over, I've struggled to do so. Apps like WhatsApp and Signal are the only way I get to speak to them. Though this is great for seeing pictures of my nieces and nephews, it makes me ponder on the relationship I have with the people I spend lots of time chatting with. For those friends I don’t see in real life very often, I wonder if I am only talking to them because it is easy? If these apps didn’t exist and I had to make an effort to call this person or go visit them, would I make the effort as often as I do to message them?
What would these relationships look like if the internet did not exist? This is where I think a lifestyle change must start to happen. We can only change so much by turning notifications off or by swapping our devices. Building real relationships with real people can’t happen exclusively over messaging apps, whether these are typed into a T9 keyboard or a qwerty one. Of course, I don’t want to take away the opportunity I’ve had to meet so many amazing people online, but I believe we have made a mistake in believing that these online relationships are equal alternatives.
I'm still feeling very called to be phoneless, but perhaps I might settle with dumbing down my phone and turning my 4G off every so often.
This post is inspiring me in the best way to become more weird than I already am - so many beautiful thoughts and suggestions here! I love writing out ideas for online creative projects in a notebook before typing or editing, and I love how you describe that building “an unmachined foundation.” I would add writing handwritten letters in public to reading and knitting as great ways to start conversations with strangers - it’s always fun when I’m at a cafe catching up on some snail mail and someone comes up and says, “I love that you’re doing that!”
The section about Vespers is so wonderful. When I was at Easter Mass this year, I felt so strongly what I’ve felt at other Catholic services, how important religious traditions are in connecting me to these deep, deep roots through which life-giving strength flows. Those are the best type of time machine, but I also had a time machine experience recently at the National Portrait Gallery. After a few hours of wandering and contemplating art from centuries past, I happened to catch sight of a garish neon sigh intruding itself through a window blind, and I realized how wonderful it had been to escape the modern world for awhile. 😂
One of the best anachronistic habits I have adopted in recent years has been gardening. It has been so wonderful to try to shift my rhythm to match the wise rhythms of nature. Adopting and raising a kitten, while I suppose not obviously anachronistic, has also been a very healthy and sanity-restoring experience, it’s been so inspiring and enjoyable to observe and learn from my cat’s natural rhythms. Excited to read others’ ideas in the comments as well. Thank you for this lovely post!
After reading https://john-steppling.com/2023/02/falling-out-of-love/, which mentions polaroid cameras I became interested in the oversaturation of photos we take and at least what I find in myself almost never look at again or look upon fondly.
"in which some form of saturation has been reached. I have two thousand pics on my smartphone. Most will disappear when my phone dies and I won’t miss them." Which I unfortunately agree with, even significant milestones feel flat in my phone crowded album of accidental screenshots.
This led me to purchase an old polaroid for $50 which works just fine. The film is quite pricey ($3-4/photo) but I am enjoying the weight of the camera when I take it with me and because I can't take a handful of quick photos they end up having more significance to me. Not to mention that the photos at their core are not 0's and 1's but feel more tangible with how they slowly develop to a tinted image separate from the pristine perfectness of my phones camera. My aim is to bring the camera to more events that one day turns into a wonderful album to flip through with our future children and grandchildren some day.
I have adopted daily journaling and creative writing with pencil and pen, just the run of the mill ones and have found it be helpful for staying organized. One interesting development was that I as soon as I learned cursive foreswore it, then after a few months of writing I took it up again and find it also lends a certain weight to what is being written. I had not yet considered a fountain or drip pen but it brought to mind C.S Lewis
- "C. S. Lewis also used a dip pen—not a fountain pen. He liked to dip the pen every 4-5 words and he would whisper his next 4-5 words aloud before writing them, to make sure they flowed. He believed it was important to make sure the words sounded right to the ear first." https://nadinebrandes.com/2017/10/18/the-lost-arts-of-writing/
Maybe it is time to consider a switch to fountain pens.
Lovely article. One of the most meaningful things I've experienced is delving into handspinning! Drop spindles are an inexpensive and technologically ancient way to experience yarn-making itself in the very way humans have made it for thousands and thousands of years. There is nothing like knitting your own handspun yarn!
I would like to sow SO many more seeds of this sort, but here are some practices I've found to be life-giving that fall under this category. (I think of it as sand in the gears so modern life doesn't get too slick!)
-never replaced the microwave. it broke two years ago.
-I too draft all my essays on paper. it was the KEY to realizing my best work.
-walking in the woods (with my phone off).
-strict specific hours for my phone.
-briefly greeting the day outside every morning when I wake without looking at clocks, thermometers, phones or whatever.
-following the liturgical calendar.
-using a hand grinder for coffee (I don't always but love when I do).
-reading the newspapers at the library.
-not letting my kids use the computers at the library!
-walking to the library, the co-op, the thrift store, wherever we can.
-that time I XC skied to the grocery store - loved it!
-foraging for food. always gets weird looks and it's free and fun and delicious!
Throughout my teenage and young adult life I considered myself an introvert in the extreme sense -- what I didn't realize is that I was simply afraid of people, and putting myself forward to initiate conversation and pursue friendship. However, finding myself at a critical juncture and wishing to test certain assumptions I was carrying about other people and myself, I chose to begin my grand experiment: by being the first to initiate conversation. What I found was that most people are craving social interaction and depth, hoping to be seen, yet are at the same time afraid of being the first to interact.
So my somewhat anachronistic practice is this: to be the first to open the door to connection; to say hello, introduce myself, and be willing to be a friend. In the past five-ish years of practicing this, I have not once (that I can recall) met with push-back or unwillingness, and have continued to be challenged to notice people, and to let them know that they are seen.
I once heard a counselor use the words "go first" when addressing this issue, and I find that to be a great introduction to the practice.
P.S. Coffee shops are a great place to start this practice, but it's also worth doing at the grocery store, the bank, or the gas pump.
Inspiring! I want to approach my hopes and prayers for the new year with these marvelous thoughts in mind.
I especially loved the Vespers as Byzantine Time Machine. My family is not Eastern Orthodox, though we love the EO and occasionally come to our friends’ EO church. Our church is also blessedly a Time Machine, but to the medieval German mass—a rare gem of a highly liturgical, confessional LCMS church.
Following the historic church year and practices, writing icons for my church, reading in public and as a pastime (no tv, though we will of course enjoy a movie or show occasionally on the laptop!) is as anachronistic as we get right now. Also approaching home education the Charlotte Mason/Classical way, with as much time outdoors and in friends’ homes as possible.
Taking pilgrimages to familiar places, using a flip phone, and maps are the biggest goals I’d love to work toward this year! Also writing letters to several friends of mine again would be another welcome anachronism.