June 21, 2009

Interstices

I woke up this morning not thinking about blues songs that begin "I woke up this morning," but rather about interstices, which are yet another unacknowledged casualty of the so-called digital age.

Cast in cement or etched in stone on a building where I work is the maxim "Wisdom is the fruit of reflection," and that might be the wisest, truest thing I've heard there (though it was probably merely an attempt, in a pre-digital age, to console students and faculty making the long trudge from one end of campus to the other ... of course now, instead of reflection in service to wisdom, we have cell phone conversations: "Where are you?" "I'm walking on the sidewalk." "Where are you?") You're not going to get wiser with ear "buds" in your ears, or talking on a cell phone. Wisdom is not the fruit of banality.

So whence wisdom? Beats me. Maybe people used be wiser because they'd use the time their bodies were busy and their minds weren't to think rather than to be entertained, to be amused to death.

All I know is, I sat down just now to talk about certain interstices, certain special moments of silence: between "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid." Between "Waitin' for the Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago." Between "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." Hell, even between "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" and "City of the Angels." Maybe that's where we can find a few seconds of enlightment: between the tigers and the butter. Think about it.

You're never going to attain enlightenment with your Ipod on shuffle, people.

3 comments:

Tim L. said...

My dad always insisted on buying a car without a radio in it. He said that the time he spent driving gave him time to solve all the world's problems.

I've always thought that NPR just told me about the world's problems, but now after reflecting on my own driving habits it appears that they may be complicit in them.

JB said...

To me, listening to something good in the car is bare recompense for having to drive around.

Michael said...

"With a purple um-ber-ella and a fifty-cent hat..."

"City of the Angels!!"

I actually have Heartbreaker and Livin' Lovin' Maid linked on my iTunes so they always play together.

I'll ignore your shuffle comment, cuz I've had plenty of enlightening moments as my iPod makes some interesting match-ups, but maybe you're just not as in touch with your technology as I am. (Oops, I guess I didn't ingore it.)