Caveat lector: some may find this entry a tad depressing.
(Now I bet you can’t resist clicking the “Continue” link, huh?)
Archive for the 'Philosophizing' Category
On ne peut plus être absent de nos jours. C’est contre les moeurs. On a beau être physiquement absent - du bureau, de chez nous, de nos amis et ceux qu’on aime - mais on garde souvent une présence virtuelle. Le chat, le téléphone mobile, les Blackberry, le courriel, même les blogues nous empêche d’être rééllement absent.
Il y a une partie de moi qui résiste à ce phénomène, surtout quand je suis en voyage, et une autre partie qui trouve ça à la fois rassurant et pratique. On peut demander si c’est sain. On peut aussi se questionner sur la manière dont cette situation affecte l’expérience d’être physiquement ailleurs. Est-ce qu’on vit une voyage de la même façon si on a aucun contacte avec tout ce qui nous est familier ? Peut-on vraiment décrocher tout en restant en contact ? Ou est-ce que, au contraire, le fait de décrire notre expérience aux autres pendant qu’on le vis le rend plus clair dans notre esprit ?
À suivre…
Announce to your entourage that you’re leaving for some distant place, even for a short time, and inevitably a large number of invitations will come your way. “We have to see each other before you go!” Naturally, you are far too busy wrapping up the details of travel, packing and work to accept them all. You might have preferred a get-together upon your return, but rarely are the invitations of a post-travel nature.
What is the source of this universal urge to see someone who is leaving? Are we afraid on some unconscious level that they may never return, either due to some unfortunate accident or the overwhelming attraction of a place that they may adopt as their new home? We might live in the same city and go months without seeing each other, but as soon as the other announces their intention to leave, however briefly, a get-together is required. Perhaps we wish to share in their experience by seeing them just before they leave, and greeting them upon their return. Whatever the case, it’s always pleasant to see that people will miss our presence.
And so, to all the friends I could not see before leaving: I’m looking forward to getting together when I get back!
This week Montreal switched to 10-digit dialing. I keep forgetting and am repeatedly subjected to the “Le numéro que vous avez composé est un numéro local…”
Which makes me wonder: how many things do we do every day without really thinking about it, simply because we’ve always done it that way? Perhaps there is no progress without the kind of rupture that forces us to examine our routines and unconscious gestures.
I guess that’s the beauty of travel: it shakes up your schedule and makes you confront your environment in conscious ways that would never happen at home where so much is familiar.
The power just went out. Down goes my Net connection and with it access to a growing number of essential tools. I use Termium, a Web-based terminology database for translators, as well as a number of online reference tools. Then there’s online banking, Google Maps, my blog admin tool and the list goes on…
At times like this, I’m happy to have a laptop with a couple of fully-charged batteries. I’m also happy that I haven’t switched to VoIP. At least the landline still works. And I can still get my email on my Treo.
All of this makes me think how dependent on electricity our modern society has become. The more networked we get, the more everything grinds to a halt when the current stops flowing.