Living as an Ewok

August 26th. It’s been about a week since I’ve had regular access to the Internet, and nearly a month since we’ve had TV. All this moving certainly has the unanticipated effect of cutting one off from real life, huh? You feel like everyone else is building death stars and communicating by hologram, while you're stuck cooking by fire and tying sticks together to throw at Stormtroopers. Having no Internet or TV forces one into a dreamscape of fantasy and surrealism. Life with no Internet: You have to read. You have to talk. You have to study the shapes and textures of the leaves on the trees swaying off the deck as you sip your morning coffee. You have to explore the neighborhood, and walk along the beach with no destination, the shadows of pelicans startling you as they cross your path. You watch how the surfers mount their boards, how the children expect the sea to fill the moats in their sand castles. Life with no TV: You have to listen to the voices of the children at the pre-school across the street. You have to be quiet while a hummingbird does what he does in the flowers along the sidewalk. You learn to jump at the right moment to catch the crest of a wave and body surf to the sand, and to walk on the rocks around a tide pool without disturbing the crabs and starfish. You have to watch as a seabird floats over the ocean, dive-bombing suddenly, drawing other seabirds to the newly plundered feast. You have to listen to music, not as an accompaniment in the background as you do something else, but as something interesting and profound in its own right. If you’re reading this, of course, we are back online. It’s August 31st now, and finally we can get back to real life: Facebook arguments, You Tube videos of one-hit-wonders from the 60s, cats driving cars. Back to the harsh realities of house hunting in Ceylon, living with Bruce Jenner, managing an aristocratic estate in 1920’s England. It was a trying few weeks with no TV or Internet, but I’m sure we will be better people for having endured it. Whew!