I have a deep love for pansies. Just like last year, they’re still going strong several months after I planted them. In fact, they were the first flowers I planted in pots – in early April. One of my pansy pots was still thriving in November of last year. Don’t know if that will happen again this year, but they are definitely plucky little beauties!

This new challenge I have set for myself – that of shutting off and then staying off my cell phone and laptop after I’ve checked in with both in the morning (including writing a blog post) – is showing me just how addictive a cell phone can be. At one point in the afternoon, I had the phone next to me because it was charging off my laptop and, boy, I had to actively, even aggressively, resist picking it up to ‘check in’ with Instagram. All while I was reading a book. It was fascinating and more than a little revealing.

It is  an addiction, you know. Reams have been written about it. They’re convenient yes, but they’re intended to be addictive, and we see evidence of that everywhere we go. From those who walk down the street with their heads downward, looking at their phones, to those who can’t turn off their phones in a theater during a live performance because they might miss a text (who is that important?), to those who must document via a selfie everything they do in the course of a day, to those who share a meal with someone only to be looking at a screen the entire time. No one is that important. It’s all smoke and mirrors, designed to make us feel  more important. But really, there’s a serious issue at hand if one’s sense of self-worth comes from a virtual life lived inside a phone.

I’m not nearly as bad as that, but I do have my issues. It’s time to take control of that. I made it through the vast majority of my life without a cellphone. Without a personal computer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for both. But I have to remind myself that when cell phones were first available, I said to everyone, “The last thing I want is for everyone to be able to reach me when I’m out of the office, or driving, or walking on the beach.” I held off for a long time before I bought one, and we only did that because we were driving in separate vehicles on our move across the country to New York and wanted to be able to stay in contact with each other in the case of an emergency.

I love having a smartphone and I don’t regret using one. It’s enormously helpful in my professional work and I love the visual stimulation of Instagram. The iPhone camera is so good that I often use those pictures for the blog and for Instagram. But I am putting my foot down. I refuse to let it dominate my day.

I’ve declared war.

Today, we’re driving across the Hudson River to investigate a small independent bookstore. I’ve been there before, but it’s been many years. Don just finished his book and is looking for a new one and he’s sort of exhausted the inventory in our local bookstore.

A little adventure for the day.

Happy Tuesday.