About us
To place an order
Reader’s comments
Fred ‘s poetry
Joann’s poetry
Programs
Events
WE NEED A SLOW BUTTON!
"The world is too much with us." That's what William Wordsworth proclaimed in his sonnet back in the early 1800s. He felt that people were paying too much time "getting and spending" while little thought was given to appreciating the natural aspects of their world. As far as he was concerned, materialism had become man's only goal.
You can't help wondering what he would think if he were around today; if there was ever a time when the world was too much with us, it's now. Beside receiving our daily news minute-by-minute via TV, internet, I-phone, I-Pad, etc., now we have every Tom, DIck and Harry putting in their two cents worth via Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. It's as if we can't think for ourselves anymore.
I am an admitted news junkie and I stand guilty as charged. I get up in the morning, turn on CNN just in case anything big has transpired since I switchthed the TV off at midnight. It's as if the world cannot survive unless I'm right on top of things, even though no one from the White House, Pentagon or the National Weather Service has ever called me for my input. I am becoming Mr. Wordsworth's worst nightmare.
I don't know why I joined Facebook, either -- now there's a time waster for you, yet I check it several times a day. Granted, it keeps me updated on the love life -- or lack thereof -- of my friends and relatives, and one of our neighbors keeps us up on the status of our local hawk, owl and tox populations, but maybe it would be better to talk with these folks in person instead of via Facebook.
We seem to be on a runaway technology-driven freight train these days and we don't know how or when to get off. Not that we want to revert to the when there was only one phone in the house and it was glued to the kitchen wall, or when we were hunting and pecking on an old Royal typewriter, but at some point we've got to at least stop long enought to smell the coffee, or maybe even a rose.
And how about sitting down and actually talking face-to-face with our kids instead of via cell phones?
There's no denying that in many was we are lucky to be alive to enjoy today's technological advances, but at some point it might be time for a break. We need a "slow" button for our lives. Not all the time of course, but at least long enough to reconnect with family, nature, and if we're lucky, a generous enough slice to time to actually explore our own thoughts and dreams. Then, who knows, maybe we'd even find time to sit down and read Mr. Wordsworth's entire sonnet. Now that. he'd like.
---- J.S. Duncanson
The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Peter E. Randall Publisher
New Hampshire Writers Project
Seacoast Writers
Mike Sullivan - Tales Told Tall
Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program
Screamers Cafe
Write to:
Joann Snow Duncanson
P.O. Box 353
Greenland, NH 03840
Email:
ourbooks@worldpath.net
Phone (603) 431-2287