Tuesday, October 22, 2013

I have four windows open at this very moment. These aren’t real windows, mind you. That would be too easy, if my sole aim were to collect as much fresh air as possible tonight. No, these are virtual windows. One is for WordPress–and for us, really. Another is for work, where the tide of e-mail seldom relents. The third window gazes upon eBay, where four of my five listings have watchers, but have yet to garner any bids. The final window contains a video tour highlighting the most important parts of Texas apartment rental agreements. It’s not playing in an active tab, though, so it’s less video and more super-boring podcast.

In a different era, such a setup wouldn’t have been possible. There would’ve been a journal. A day job. A garage sale. A conversation between prospective tenant and landlord. Not so long ago, you would’ve paid a heavy price for this kind of connectivity–literally, as you wielded your five-pound satellite phone for 20 minutes of talk time. There was no hiding one of those things. It was a public avowal, a scarlet letter. We’ve since traded that heft for small, smooth, rounded corners, and as light as our devices have gotten, as hidden as they’ve become, I can’t help wonder if we lost something in the trade. Some of our humanity, perhaps.

First-world problems, right? Very likely so, but they need to be navigated nonetheless. At first, I thought the tried-and-true method of focusing on one thing at a time would be the answer. Your very own pointillist painting, I said. I’m not so sure anymore, because the dots themselves don’t materialize conveniently, one at a time. They rain down in quantity, and often they all demand your attention equally. My new answer? Fuck prioritization and do everything you can, at all times, until you have to go to bed.