By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be here. Rural Chatham County, camping in the woods with friends I only see twice a year at Shakori Hills. We’ll be setting around a fire, with the live music from the stages casting a reverberating ambiance over our conversation about what acts we want to see that night. The hardest decision I’ll have to make this weekend is which yoga class to attend during the day before the festivities begin at night.
Astute readers of my generation (looking at you, JD) should recognize the headline and subtitle as a nod to the band Cake. Their song “No Phone” was released in 2004, and it has only become more prescient over time. Keep in mind that this was well before smartphones were invented, and people still consumed music in the form of CDs.
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I highly recommend listening and, more importantly, ruminating about the message.
I say all this because when I pitch my tent and set up camp on Friday, my phone will become nothing more than an expensive flashlight. Cell service is more or less non-existent, and the appendage known as my smartphone will be severed from my body. I can’t wait. Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with my phone. I’m grateful for what it can do, but at the same time, resentful of how much I depend upon it. Although I’m a millennial and grew up with the internet, I never had instant access to it until well into my 20s, which I’m very thankful for as I look back upon.
Instead of scrolling through the ESPN app and playing Wordle, I’ll have a real physical book to read as I sip my morning coffee. I’ll even have the option of just sitting and listening to the woods as the birds greet the day and the sun punches holes in the canopy of tree leaves above. In a world of constant stimulation and noise, the simple act of doing nothing but absorbing the present moment can amount to an act of rebellion.
I am very well-informed about the physical body, but the mind is still mostly a mystery. The one thing I do know is that removing my phone from my life for a couple of days isn’t something to be feared but celebrated.
You don’t have to attend a music festival in the middle of nowhere to disconnect from the world, but it sure does help. Find your own Shakori and give your brain a break, too.