Turn it off

 I like the idea of temples up on mountains, separated from the man made jungle of townships and cities. A quiet reticent place to be alone with one's thoughts but demanding your time and effort to get there.


Do you have a temple on a hill? Do you have your own little place of solitude where you can get away from everything and spend time with your own thoughts? The world is crammed full of noise and nonsense. So much that it seems to infiltrate every part of our daily life. Have you noticed?

Everyday we are being manipulated and engineered. Billboards on buildings and buses tell us that we are not beautiful enough and that more fun is being had elsewhere. We are told what fashion is. Popstars - in all their wisdom, morality and profundity - provide us anthems for living. We get caught up in meaningless drivel. There are images everywhere. Open your eyes next time you head to work or school. We are being lied to, sold to. Do we ask to have all of these images and noises put in front of our faces and blasted into our ears?

No.

But that is the way the world operates. This is what it has become.

I like to think of the world before the days of print. Imagine what that would have been like. Signs would have been painted by hand and it would have taken a lot of work and man hours to create anything elaborate. I don't think there would be many signs or murals advertising medical holidays to get boob jobs. Think of the fashion and cosmetic industry without any edited photos and images. No endorsements or pin up models. I'd like to see the supermarket shelves full of products without lavish packaging trying to warrant the extra expense.

I listened to a Ravi Zacharias podcast a while ago and in it the statement was made: "Art used to imitate life but now life imitates art."

He was talking about how things have changed in the digital age, how we live in a world of images. How true that statement is.

We are so inundated with digital media in all its forms and suggestions that it detracts from meaningful personal thought. For better or worse it saturates our lives and it influences our thinking. Our imagination suffers. Our wonder suffers. I get so angry sometimes. It's a blatant form of abuse! It's on our way to work, it's at our workplace, it's in our home on the television and internet. We're having cheap shots taken at us everywhere. We're being preached to by soulless corporate entities because they want our pocketbooks.

So I ask the question; Where do we escape? Where is your place of refuge? I really think we need to balance the ledger.

Switch it off.

That's the beautiful thing about nature. Mountains. Lakes. Rivers. It's all natural. Get amongst the quiet.

When was the last time you got away and made a technological disconnect? When there were no digital distractions, seductions and influences? Is it something you can even contemplate doing? Sometimes you can't even appreciate your circumstances until you remove yourself from them.

Switch it off.

Get a sweat up and climb a mountain. Get amongst nature. Elevate your heart rate. Lose your breath. Feel your mortality for what it is. Listen to the truth. Maybe when you switch it all off you'll actually feel something switch on.

Your soul.

"Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have rearranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs."

- Banksy