Comments on: I Just Can’t Take Anymore

By: Robyn

Robyn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:05:39 +0000

My husband was just commenting today about the level of stress for people nowadays. Back in the day, when we were young, families had much more time to spend together doing fun things like playing in the yard or playing games or going for bike rides.
These days we own so many ‘things’ and all of these ‘things’ need maintaining.
For example…when I was young, our family had one car. We own three cars for three people. My husband also has a motorcylce and two ATV’s (please don’t get me started on my feelings about all of this) and all of these vehicles need maintaining. They all need their oil changed and whatever else you do to maintain cars. This takes time, lots of time.
We all have DVD players and TVs that need fixing. All of these ‘high tech’ gadgets that we all have to have keep us so busy that we have no time anymore for relaxing.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.

By: Dr. Julie-Ann

Dr. Julie-Ann — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:41:01 +0000

On the Facebook fan site, Debbie also mentioned the cell phone thing. Did you all see this article from the Washington Post?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022104235.html

By: Dr. Julie-Ann

Dr. Julie-Ann — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:29:38 +0000

We just got home from the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. One of the current exhibits is about the tradition of Native American basketry. One of the contemporary weavers the curators had interviewed said something that hit me dead on. She said that her grandmother had admonished her to connect with the materials as she is weaving and that if her head is too full, she won’t have success weaving that day. The weaver said that she has found the admonishment to be so true. She said that when she is having a frustrating day with her weaving, she stops and prays, meditates and empties her head before going back to work.

We can’t “feel the materials” if we’ve got too much stuff in our head.

By: Kathy Warnock

Kathy Warnock — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:30:09 +0000

When I think of the “retro” woman, I see her as someone who has depth and strength of character. If we hope to emulate her, we can’t develop her quality of thought unless we have moments of silence that we allow to stretch into hours. It requires self-discipline, another quality that the retro woman fostered in herself. But I will go so far as to say that silence is a basic human need that is no longer recognized or appreciated.

But — we will have to deal with it individually, I think. I couldn’t give up TV, but we have DVR and watch nothing that isn’t recorded. I believe it’s important to read and think rather than receiving info entirely by the spoken word. I think that advertising — always questionable — has now become horrific. It’s more powerful than we know, and that’s scary.

I have a cellphone. I seldom use it — don’t even think of it. My children think it’s terrible that I am not available 24-7. I no longer multi-task well. I am easily distracted and I know it.

What really scares me is that if I don’t keep up with technology, I will not be able to cope in the world. We are pressured to keep up, and that’s another strain on the intellect.

By: Lidian

Lidian — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:34:26 +0000

I agree entirely. There are lots of things that I hate about this, but the first that comes to mind is how the written words and images in commercials have to pulsate because we need stimulation every single microsecond. (Actually we mostly watch DVDs of things like I Love Lucy so avoid commercials, but we’ve been watching the Olympics…I’ll be glad to go back to the DVDs to tell you the truth!)

By: Emily Catherine

Emily Catherine — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:51:52 +0000

Ugh, I couldn’t agree more. Last month I went to my dentist–his office is in a small-ish town and has a relatively small practice, just local people, the sort of place where the person cleaning your teeth knows all about your family. For some reason, since my last visit my dentist installed flatscreen TV monitors in each room, right in front of the dental chair for the patients to stare at. All that showed on the screen were advertisements for teeth-whitening procedures, on a loop for the entire hour I was in the chair. Seriously! I was rather appalled and considered saying something about it, but decided to hold my tongue.