Giving It Up

I am preparing my Ash Wednesday sermon today, and I've spent some time reading about that time-honored spiritual discipline of giving something up for Lent. I've done this myself a couple of times (television, red meat, etc.) to amazing effect. There really is nothing more powerful than intentionally denying yourself something in this "Your Way, Right Away" culture. There is something that touches the vein of what Lent is all about in not giving in to what you want.

As I prepare, I have been haunted by an image.

I caught a glimpse of the Today show this morning. (Nothing better than America's most trusted news source for Britney head-shavings, Anna Nicole Smith hearings, and astronaut love triangles...you know, the news that really matters...but I digress). They had a short piece on a New York businessman (pretty high up on the totem pole, I think) who they challenged to give up his cell phone, Blackberry, all of his portable electronic devices for one week. I didn't catch the whole story, but I did catch the man (when faced with some time away from his daughter on a road trip) crying...no, bawling...because he couldn't "leave his daughter with no way to contact him." He gave up. He only made it to Tuesday.

They cut back from the "story" to a one-on-one interview between this guy and the Today show guy. They proceeded to, collectively, go on a diatribe about how completely impossible it is to be a human being without these devices. Among the points made:
--"They say it will simplify your life! It doesn't! You lose all connection!!"
--"I missed 91 e-mails in one day."
--"These devices are essential for anyone who wants to function in today's society."
--"Pay phones!!!!??? Who actually uses pay phones!!!!?!??!?"

Where do you begin with this?

Point one: Is this man staying in the new phone-free Super 8?
Point two: I started to wonder if this man ever had a conversation with his children that wasn't via the phone. I'm sorry....that's not fair...I'm sure he's a better Dad than that. Phone or instant message.
Point three: I was blown away by how condescending their little rant was. I don't have a Blackberry. I use pay phones on occasion. This makes me, at best, "disconnected," at worst, some sort of pay phone using mongrel who hates his family and work.
Point four: Are you, Today Show Man, who spends three hours a day talking about Britney's bald head, really the person who we should listen to about a "functioning society?"
Point five: Yes, I realize that in watching this on TV and then commenting about it on (no less than) a blog, I'm borderline hypocritical.

Amazing stuff. I know the sarcasm is a bit thick here...but there is something here about what we "need" to survive as (rich-to-middle-class) Americans. It keeps growing and growing and growing...and, as a result, communication keeps morphing and morphing and morphing. Am I crazy in thinking that a grown man weeping over the loss of his cell phone should be an indication of a need to simplify (or reach out to other humans) rather than an affirmation that it is a beneficial, essential part of who he is? Or is this just sour grapes? Am I being some sort of techno-prude longing for the "Good 'Ol Days?"

I don't know. All I know is that I like talking to people on the phone, via e-mail, via cell phone, etc...but without honest, true, community I would wither and die at my keyboard. What I hope and pray is that I am not increasingly becoming a stranger in a strange land...a dying minority. Reports like this would seem to indicate that.