This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.
I recently fell down a Youtube rabbit hole where multiple, seemingly unrelated videos expressed their difficulties with life outside of technology. One Booktube creator now has crippling social anxiety and couldn’t even attend his father’s birthday party because he didn’t know the people on the invitation list. Another creator shared her troubles in the classroom, reflecting on the current teaching advice to change instructional methods every five minutes in order to keep the kids’ attention. And on and on. I watched these videos with such a sadness in my heart. What is happening to us as a society?
Ever since I was a little girl, I have had a stubborn streak and preferred to dance to the beat of my own drum. That tendency was tempered a bit as I advanced in grades because well, kids are mean and “blending in” tends to be the best survival tactic. But as I grow older, that little stubborn streak has returned. I don’t want to become an automaton, a slave to technology. I don’t want that for my kids either. I want to experience the real world even if it’s inconvenient or messy or awkward. I want to see technology as a tool, not something I cannot live without. So I resist. Gently.
Some small examples from the past few years: We don’t have any streaming services and buy secondhand DVDs instead. We gave up Amazon Prime. We have one television and it lives in the basement. We don’t participate in any social media. I haven’t replaced my cell phone in five years. We grow our own food even though it’s a ton of work and way more expensive than just buying at the store. We loathe debt and often pay for items with cash. We read widely and often.
These examples seem small and insignificant, but are they? Nothing is insignificant if they order us toward Truth.
Wendell Berry’s poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, provides the encouragement to keep going, to seek small ways to keep our humanity, both in body and in spirit. You should read the entire poem, but I especially loved this part:
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
I think my life’s mission will be finding new things that just won’t compute.
Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!
Around here, abundance looks like…
+ RAIN! While winter rain is kind of miserable, I’m grateful for its arrival. Last year’s drought was so terrible and I know our pastures and gardens are in dire need of the moisture.
+ committing to a vitamin routine (thanks, Little Things Bingo!) after waffling back and forth in December. I’m not a doctor so do your own research – blah, blah, blah – but I’m currently taking a multivitamin, a probiotic, supplemental vitamin D, and fish oil every day. I add in vitamin C, quercetin and zinc when I feel myself getting sick. And bonus: I made myself a “poor man’s pill box” using a plastic tackle box and scrapbook stickers we already owned!
+ checking off another bingo prompt: make a new soup. I made a tomato bisque with homemade chicken broth and a can of tomatoes from the pantry.
+ getting prepped for a new growing season. I fortunately still have a large seed collection and only needed to purchase a few seed packets (tomatoes and flowers), onion starts and seed potatoes. I also ordered our first batch of broiler chicks for arrival in early March.
+ trying winter sowing in milk jugs for the first time. I used this tutorial and started lavender, foxgloves and brussels sprouts. (I’ll be adding more as we drink through more milk.) The process was super easy and I’m really excited to see if this will work!
+ making pizza sauce with cherry tomatoes I froze back in the fall. We made homemade pizza for dinner one night and then used up the rest for pizza dip later in the week. A pantry/freezer challenge win.
+ purchasing a brand new piano book for my daughter and a like-new Iliad & Odyssey for me on Pango Books for $17. By not purchasing from Amazon, I saved $20 and supported another seller. Win/win.
+ selling eleven unneeded items: five books and six of my son’s video games (I sell on his behalf and he gets the money). After shipping and fees, I made $107.14!
Reading //
- Simple Acts of Sanity: A Seed Catalogue from School of the Unconformed // Includes a great list of ideas for gentle defiance
- In Praise of Repair Culture from Plough // A response to throwaway culture! I loved this little paragraph about the author’s grandfather:
Grampa, who had grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm during the Great Depression, shared his generation’s hallmark frugality. He couldn’t stand seeing anything usable or fixable thrown away, from leftover food to old books, which he restored in one of his other workshops, a bindery. (Not coincidentally, he also shared his generation’s penchant for packrat collecting.) But his repair work wasn’t primarily about saving money. The value of a thing wasn’t measured by its replacement price but rather by the use to which it could be put, and by the labor of those who had made it or previously repaired it.
- Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax from The Free Press // A teenager’s perspective on technology.
- The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster // A science fiction short story from 1909 that eerily rings true today. Excellent. I copied a ton of quotes, but here’s just one:
“You talk as if a god had made that Machine,” cried the other. “I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you.” (p.8-9)
Watching/Listening //
- Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Continuing on with lesson two and Ave Maria.
- Self-Care for Homeschool Moms by the The Commonplace // Wise advice for all moms, not just for those who homeschool.
- Vintage Winter Music playlist // Thanks for reminder about this, Melisa!
Loving //
- the cat’s cradle book we got my daughter for Christmas // She and I are having so much fun!
- Rosemary’s 2024 reading plans // Because of her list, I want to jump into the Book of Centuries Challenge from the Literary Life Podcast!
- these power failure alarms for our deep freezers // We appreciate the peace of mind that we won’t accidentally lose all of our meat.
Jen says
After you finish that string games book (which we have too!) check out this one Cat’s Cradle, Owl’s Eyes: A Book of String Games. That is my favorite one and has many more figures to make! I still enjoy making them and teaching them to my kids.
Ashley says
Ooh thank you! I’ll have to find a copy for her Easter basket (and for me too, ha!).
Melisa says
I love that phrase “gentle defiance”. I also love the notion of doing things that “don’t compute”. Wow, this is chock full of things to ponder, Ashley. I’m reminded of Professor John Cuddeback’s blog – “Bacon from Acorns” (well, now I think they call it LifeCraft, but I like the old name best!) Are you familiar with it? He’s a philosophy professor, and on Wednesdays has a reflection on a different topic relating to living a good, moral, human life. He (and now his wife Sophia, too) have some videos where they discuss much of what you are referring to in this post. They also have some other offerings on their site – great stuff!
Beautiful painting by Pissarro – thanks for sharing.
Have a blessed week,
Melisa
Ashley says
I’m not familiar with LifeCraft and will have to check it out, thank you!
Rosemary says
My husband and I have been talking about moving our tv to the basement. We have 1, currently in our living room, aka library. We have a 5 (?) year plan of adding more bookshelves to that room and would move the tv to a space in our basement. Would you be willing to share your set up and how the tv is used (or not)? Specifically, do the kids have access and how that goes?
Ashley says
We used to have our TV in the living room too, but found that we only congregated there to stare at the big black box! Once we moved it to the basement, the living room quickly became a place to read and play music and hang out. We have an old couch in the basement with the TV and the kids will watch movies (and sometimes play video games on weekends) down there. We’re not anti-television by any means, but I found that taking the TV away from the first floor helps them realize that there are a lot of ways to spend their time, not just staring at a screen.