Everywhere I go, people, all people, even little people are busily using some type of electronic device to communicate with someone else that could be either on the other side of the world, or, in the next chair. Many may be playing a game, earning points that would make them better than others playing the same game somewhere else. Everyone, it seems has electronic devices, even a little three year old great granddaughter. Facebook recently launched an app called; “Messenger Kids”, aimed at little children!
In the technological superiority of the 21st century, man can cross oceans and continents in a matter of hours and even run international businesses with an iPhone and a laptop. These devices are literally changing the way people have interacted for centuries. Families used to sit down together for meals. Some still do but they all have their devices right next to them and as soon as they take a bite they are scanning their devices, again. If it is not music echoing in their ears, it is a friends voice, a game or something else that just gained fame across the world that everyone has to know about. If they are not on-line, they fear they are technologically falling behind friends and family. Those who refuse to join the electronically oriented masses, are sometimes snickered at, they have, what might be referred to as ‘electronic leprosy’.
It is true, people can be alone for days and be perfectly happy with only their devices. They have all the entertainment they can stand, without even leaving their stuffed chair. We are developing electronic hermits, they can isolate themselves from everyone around them simply by a device and earphones.
There are those who want to escape the electronic world and the constant noise coming from their devices. Others would like to escape the constant noise and the isolation they feel coming from other people’s devices.
Where can a person find silence and solitude in today’s world? The desert is a place bereft of life. Yet many people, including Jesus of Nazareth, have ventured into the desert precisely because it is a place of silence and emptiness, where man can be alone with himself, and perhaps, even find God.
“What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well,” said Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. “A well of life giving, cold, refreshing water – the face of a new life.”
Saint Anthony also trekked into the desert to find solitude. Like Anthony, doing so, may change everything for a person. He experienced a dramatic conversion. Anthony was born in Lower Egypt in 251 A.D. to a wealthy landowning family. His parents died when he was 18 years old. This could have been the beginning of a life of wealth and ease while the Roman Empire was still centuries away from collapse. Yet, not long after his parent’s death, he heard the words of Christ while attending a church service: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). Anthony promptly dispensed with all his property, giving it away to neighbors and donating his inheritance to the poor. He became an inspiration to Christians throughout Egypt; they consulted him and listened to his wisdom and guidance. According to Casey Chalk who wrote extensively about Saint Anthony, said that he is considered to be the father of Christian monasticism. Many people have found God amidst the solitude and silence of monastic surroundings. “We are a people with an unprecedented level of digital connectivity — many people spend far more time in front of screens than interacting with other people, face-to-face. Perhaps many of our teenagers are addicted to technology. Americans’ FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” has been greatly buoyed by our incessant attraction to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.” said Chalk.
Yet, we are lonelier and more depressed than previous generations. Suicide rates are rising in America. French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal mused that “… all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” We must resist the detrimental effects of the digital age and of thinking that the key to our success, is an ever-greater degrees of innovation. We must creatively seek and implement ways of unplugging, of preserving quiet within ourselves and our homes. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry observed: “I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams…” Is there a metaphorical (or real) desert we can escape to, for reflection, and to discover what really is most important to human health and our wellbeing? There is a power in silence, the question is and probably always has been, just how do we get to our personal deserts?