The Duty to Stay Connected

am so loving & resonating with everything I read from you, Tara ... looking forward to connecting more at some point, when we're both good & ready :-) would love to be one of your spotlights at some point

Thank you, Sara! It's a pleasure to meet you and I look forward to
learning more about you.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this post. :)

To give proper credit, I just found your blog via a link from http://www.kellydiels.com/

I've been following you on Twitter, (I'm @MyFengShuiLife) but I guess I haven't visited your link from you bio!
(shame on me...now i know what I've been missing out on)

Anyway, now a subscriber and I look fwd to reading more.

Namasté
Mitzi

Mitzi,

So great to meet you! Thank you for the support. I'd love to know more
about what you do.

Also, thank you for introducing me to Kelly's work... I hadn't visited
her site before. I look forward to connecting with her.

WOW! I thought it was only me that has developed such preventive habits,only to find someone very similar.
"You are the sun that shines; You are the air we breathe; You are the water we drink. How about us? Are we allowed to prepare the billboards for your future representations?"

Mike,

I often am picked on by my family and friends for my "preventive
habits" as they don't really understand them, so believe me it is a
great relief to me to know you understand and share my perspective.

My favorite book about design is Donald Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. It completely liberated me from the idea that I am a klutz as I came to see that the everyday objects that betrayed my presumed klutziness were poorly designed. Core to Norman's design theory is: Design is putting knowledge into the world. This is done through systems of "affordances" and "constraints" -- excellent design contains both. It doesn't just allow you to do things...it also keeps you from doing the wrong things. Think about floppy disks (remember floppies?) - actually, I'm thinking about the rigid ones (even though we still called them floppies): You couldn't put them in the drive wrong...you almost couldn't even try. The drive opening and the disk conspired without words to show you how it should go in. Compare that with so much award-winning design that you have to figure out. Doors with no obvious cues as to which side you need to push or pull and whether you need to push or pull. Phones with non-intuitive (even counterintuitive) key pads.

Most memorable line from Norman's book: "A door that requires a Push or Pull sign is a poorly designed door." I'm trying to design my life according to that philosophy.

I like that idea, Jeff. "A door that requires a Push or Pull sign is a
poorly designed door." It has stayed with me all day.

You'll never look at a door the same way again.

Great post. I had a similar conversation with my business partner a couple of nights ago, not about being connected as such but as to how we manage information. His dream is a perfect flow of information through a channel that he can access by any means at any time. I like my multiple e-mail accounts and actually having to log in to my social media sites. These constraints make my information self-organizing. People who need to reach me know they can through my work e-mail, which goes straight to my PDA. Stuff I care about but don't want to necessarily deal with in real time goes to one of my regularly checked e-mail accounts. I manage Twitter via Tweetdeck and look at FaceBook when I feel like it. This suits me just fine.

Jeff,

So nice to hear from you. I hadn't thought about log-ins as a
constraint to make information self-organizing... but you are so
right, they are. If you don't login, the information is not available
to you. The act of logging allows you control when and where the
connection happens. On the other hand, I am intrigued by the concept
of one aggregated tool for staying connected. Twitter, email, RSS, and
other social tools in one place, under one account. I don't doubt we
are headed in that direction. But even with an aggregated tool we
could still determine when we hit the 'ol login button and gets dosed
with info. I suppose the bottom line is we need to still feel as
though we can control what information we get, where and when.

Hello Tara!
I could just say 'ditto!' But, my thought is, 'why comment on a blog if that's all you want to say since it's probably not all you'd want to say. But I digress...

I've long thought that just because someone feels the need to call me does not mean that I must call them back....and soon. Same with email! I'm finding that too many emails and phone messages are people wanting/needing me to do something. I remember calling friends just find out how they were doing and I'm wondering why we have no time to do this anymore. Yes, life has changed, but in some ways not for the better.

I have Facebook to see what people are doing; that's for my friends and family since I have both all across the country. I'm thrilled to be able to see what my old school chums are doing, and I even found one from grade school...now that's a really long time ago. But I have also lived in many different places, so this enables me to feel part of people's lives still without needing to call or write. I get caught up with their news much more easily. Oddly, that does save me time and feeds my love of connection and communication.

I am trying out other social media systems, but as you know, it all takes time to learn and check. So, sometimes I just need to disconnect and not do any of them for a day or so. The overwhelm of overcommitment can really take its toll and people are on these things when we really should be either doing something else, or sleeping.

But reading your thoughts has re-reminded me to work to slow life's pace down. I did not always live this way...always busy. I am working to get back to a more healthy pace and find that I do that by spending more time doing my Art and connecting with Divine in whatever way seems right at the moment...of course, sometimes that working on some artistic endeavor.

I have found myself attracted to the 'Slow Movement' and some groups will call it the Sloth movement. There are groups of people who are working together to slow life down for themselves and the groups that really caught my interest are those who get together for long slow meals. No rushing for them and I'm betting that blackberries are fruit that they will have as part of their desserts when in season, not their connection with the outside world every minute of every day!

Thanks for your thought provoking words.
Susie

Susie,

I too find my Self more and more attracted to a slower lifestyle. It
is a real challenge shifting my thinking away from our society's
prevalent story that busier equals more useful, that fast is a
necessity. I often find my Self struggling internally with the old
notions I hold and the new ones I am embracing. A simple, easy life
seems wrong somehow. Like I am fooling myself that life and business
and everything in between doesn't need to be stressful. Perhaps I
simply need more proof (time passing) that my life as it is, is real
and sustainable.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your story. It's great to know
that FaceBook has been of great value to you and your relationships.
Perhaps my fear of overcommitment has prevented me from joining and I
need to let go of that.