I’m surrounded by people consumed by devices, including myself. Some of the devices are tablets or computers, and others are cell phones. There are even a few books spread among the crowd.
People are listening to music, movies or audiobooks, and rarely does anyone speak.
All the windows are closed, keeping most of the light out, so it’s dark, as well as quiet, except for a low hum in the background.
This sounds normal in 2021, like any standard waiting room. Except it’s not normal because I’m 30,000 feet in the air in an airplane.
It’s strange how far humanity has come in the last 100 years. Our minds are no longer interested in the sites that a bird’s-eye-view can give us. Instead, we are transfixed by screens, pages and our eyelids. Flight no longer fascinates us. We close our windows and get mad at the person next to us who doesn’t. And reflecting on that saddens me.
It saddens me that being thousands of feet in the air in a multi-ton, metal vehicle no longer holds my interest, that watching the sunset over the mountains behind the Great Salt Lake is not as interesting to me as looking at a screen that I can look at any time.
What is life now that I am here? When will I stop to enjoy what is around me? When will Creation be enough, just as God spoke it to be?
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: Sunsets > Screen time