💾 Archived View for rosenzweig.io › gemlog › 2020-11-06-gemini-day-7.gmi captured on 2021-12-17 at 13:26:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-11-07)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I'm tiring of classifying days as "successful" or "unsuccessful". Regardless, I promised you an email access log:
Nov 5:
8:56 - 9:02
Nov 6:
6:48 - 6:51
7:48 - 7:48
8:31 - 8:38
11:23 - 11:51
1:57 - 1:57
2:38 - 2:39
It is not entirely accurate, since I logged onto my server a few times for unrelated reasons and learned whether I had new mail or not simply from the "You have [new] mail" line at the shell. (I don't know how to disable that). Regardless, approximately 7 checks, down from 14 yesterday, seems like a good reduction to me. Even if we fudge the numbers and put it up to 10, that's still a big improvement.
I was raised in the Jewish tradition. I am ethnically Jewish, hardly a secret given my last name, although I have never been traditionally observant. Spiritually, I align myself with Quakerism (the Religious Society of Friends). Given nontraditional branches of Judaism are focused on custom and principle while leaving the spiritual questions to the individual Jew, while modern Quakerism is focused entirely on the Spirit and compatible principles with little fixed custom, I do find compatibility. Although I falter and err, I strive to uphold Quaker values (simplicity, peace, integrity, equality, community, and sustainability) as inalienable, but prefer to express relevant prayer in Hebrew.
In other words, I have the usual immigration problem: in a synagogue, I am a Quaker, but in a Friends meeting, I am a Jew :-)
I find myself connecting more with spirituality -- _any_ spirituality, indeed -- the more I disconnect from the Internet, which should come as little shock to anyone who has spent much time online. Note I distinguish spirituality from religion; hanging out in ideological echo chambers online might reinforce religious doctrine but will hardly connect a person to any higher power.
Regrettably, the pandemic has pushed me away from the Spirit, perhaps in a time it is needed most.
In the near future, I'd like to discuss the intersections between these six Quaker values with Gemini, a system that naturally embodies simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and sustainability. But for today, the sun is setting on a Friday night, and if my journey is to disconnect from the electronic dystopia we have built for each other, my Jewish roots are pleading me to honour the Sabbath (Shabbat), which traditionally requires abstinence from electronics among other prohibitions.
It's regrettable that the focus is on negative prohibitions. I don't think it's helpful to define Shabbat by a lack of Internet, a lack of driving, a lack of work. Rather, as Gemini demonstrates and I can testify to first-hoof, periodic self-restraint can be immensely positive. One less day per week online sounds like a good deal to me, if it results in meaningful connections in the interim.
It's a little awkward to consider respecting Shabbat properly during the pandemic, when religious services are online. But for Geminispace purposes, I *can* respect the no-electronics bit.
I do intend to update the gemlog tomorrow night after sunset -- with no email access logs to speak of -- but for now, tata and shabbat shalom.