Today. Crystalline sun lights up Lake Monroe — and I unplug, hoping to penetrate contradiction.

The light so different from two days ago . . .

Once again, grateful.

And, this is my only post today. Why?

Ever alert for synchronicity, today I came across an article in the local paper that talked about “digital detoxing.” Some camp that caters to families who have found their lives taken over by their screens. Like my family has been. See this. And like me.

People wonder if it’s an addiction. If you’ve never actually gone off-line for at least 24 hours, you don’t know that it is. All the symptoms are there:

1. A sort of high, whiny buzz in the head that you don’t even notice until you decide not to plug it (in) again.

2. Alternating listlessness (what will I do with myself?) and panic (what will I do with myself?).

3. Way too many “spaces” (moments, minutes, hours) to fill. Terrifying, like a vertiginous black hole vortex of which you hope to just skirt the rim.

What I’ve noticed (during the very few times that I have truly, deliberately, voluntarily unplugged), is that the first symptom is the worst (the others may dwell within it), and that it does subside within three or four hours.

Okay, so I saw that article on digital detoxing today, and it started me thinking about doing it today. Then Shadow and I went out to Lake Monroe for a walk . . .

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And on the way back — yep, there it was! Synchronicity! A story This American Life on NPR about a Brooklyn School that is pretty much run by kids, and that makes every other week a “no screen week” — until one meeting, where they decided that everybody older than 13 can use screens for research, even during “no screen” weeks. And that, at least so far, they are being responsible.

Am I responsible? Well, I don’t play video games, or get on gossip or porn sites. But I do want the “news,” all the news all the time. Even though I know it’s mostly the “olds.” And even though what I especially pay attention to are the contradictions which, to me signify growing points, nodes that we need to focus on directly, embrace and embody directly, in order to see/feel our way through them.

For example, on this site, within the past few days I have posted articles by Marshall Vian Summers and Benjamin Creme that directly contradict one another on the question of the meaning and purpose of the presence of Extraterrestrials on this planet. Notice also the comments, by their supporters, below these two posts. And see this, for my initial perspective on the Summers post.

Last night I started to read a book that — another synchronicity! — points a possible way through this particular growing node. It’s by John Lash Lamb, Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief. What grabbed me is his pointing to the obvious: the “salvation myth” that lies at the heart of Christianity, and therefore, of our civilization. If so, then expecting, hoping, wanting, needing extraterrestrials to “save” us is one more iteration of this all-too-human myth that has riveted us for thousands of years. No wonder it feels so strong. No wonder it tugs like a tsunami tide.

So today, I will read that book, and I will attend the Occupy Bloomington event on decarceration. And I promise myself not to look at another screen until morning.