The best of both worlds
offline and online
Hi there,
Although I will never use ChatGPT, preferring the agony of the analog process, I still love me some Internet.
Five things to share:
I sometimes get emails insinuating I must be offline at the moment, so far removed from my inbox, enjoying some utopian, unplugged existence. Nope, I’m checking my email. It might even surprise you how much time I still spend online. Especially on Tuesdays, waiting for your approval— I am human after all and I crave the likes and comments for the agony of creating and sharing these words. I spend a lot of time offline too; that would surprise some too. “How come you don’t know about this?” “You didn’t hear about that!?!” “I would never know of Mehret’s existence if so and so didn’t introduce us.” I’m not on social media to stumble upon; a friend’s Friends list, a tag, a comment: I am offline. But I’m online too. I’m on my laptop typing this, using GPS on my phone to get around, listening to music— Hoopla, Apple Music. Saturday night, I fell asleep on the couch watching the Longest Week, and that was online too— on Kanopy, not Netflix, but nonetheless, it required internet connection. I used to agonize about this in the beginning. What is offline anyway? Smartphone or flip phone? Social media or no social media? Internet or no internet? Am I a fraud for spending hours on WordPress making my blog pretty? A hypocrite? No, not at all. I feel I have achieved that sweet spot between the offline and online: The best of both worlds.
Please, my beloved, don’t fret.
From a devastatingly captivating book I’m currently reading: The Nightingale, set in World War II, tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion, and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied France. A heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. NOVELS ARE THE BEST SELF-HELP BOOKS. I found out about the book from my Book Club, a Meetup group that meets offline. The best of both worlds!
A quote I want to share with you:
If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. — The Nightingale/ Kristin Hannah
Patience With What Is Strange: In Praise Of Slow Art
Slow art, if it is great art, demands our time and patience before it will reveal all it has and can be to us. We should welcome this, for not only does this art often reward us most for our patience, but the practice of paying attention is itself, understood rightly, a kind of joy. There is an art that can offer us a world if we will but attend.
A question for you: how do you find your balance between the online and the offline?
P.s., Electricity is out as I make the last edits for this post. The only light source I have in my very dark apartment is from my smartphone and two tiny, scented candles I got as gifts. I’m literally the least prepared soul for an apocalypse but what matters is I can hotspot my phone data to my laptop to publish this post, and for that I am eternally grateful for my dumb smartphone.
That’s all for this week!
Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.
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Until next time,
Mehret