Lenten Change-Up: Fast From All Media
I had an idea for a little Lenten change-up, something to take the focus off food: a complete media fast, perhaps once a week if possible, or one afternoon or evening per week.
no movies
no TV
no video games
no computer
no email
no internet
no chat or instant messaging
no radio
no CDs
no newspaper
no magazines
no books
no phone
no texting
In other words, no “canned” input of any kind.
If you want music, you must play it yourself or go to a concert and hear it live.
If you want games, you must get out the cards or a board game and play with actual people.
If you want written words, you must write them.
If you want conversation, you must conduct it face-to-face with a live human being.
Isaiah 58:6 says “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke.”
Do you feel unjustly bound by your email inbox? Oppressed by the constant barrage of noise from the various screens and speakers throughout your house? Crushed under a yoke of unread newspapers, magazines, books?
I don’t have cable or satellite TV and I only get one broadcast channel on my set; I don’t have a video game system; I don’t own a cell phone; I don’t even know how to do internet chat. In other words, I live a pretty quiet life already with regards to media, but even I often feel overwhelmed by input.
I’m already “fasting” from radio/music in the car during my daily commute, but I’m going to try this one night a week, at least, for the rest of Lent. I can tell you already that the hardest part for me will be “no books.” But the written word, good as it is, is a form of input that, if never silenced, has the power to drown out the voice of God. In his book, The Rhythm of Life, Matthew Kelly writes, “You can learn more in an hour of silence than in a year from books.”
A positive list of what you CAN do during a media fast:
write letters to elderly relatives who don’t have email
go for a walk
light a fire and sit with people and drink wine and talk
play a board game
bake bread
pray the Rosary
pray in silence without the aid (crutch?) of a text of any kind
you get the idea
Related stuff elsewhere on the internet:
Tim Ferriss: Experiments in Lifestyle Design — “Low-Information Diet & Selective Ignorance”
Leo Babauta: Zen Habits — “Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment”
I agree wholeheartedly with your Lenten change-up ideas, and I think it’s wise to avoid input-overload on an ongoing basis, as a way of life. I’ve been practising “selective ignorance” for years; I’ve paid the price many times by “not knowing what’s going on”, but on the whole, it’s the only way I can cope!
Does “no books” mean that you can’t read the Bible?
Jaibee:
I would say that if you were a Biblical scholar who read and studied the Bible all day every day, the “no books” suggestion might apply even to the Bible. It would be good in that situation to seek God in wordless silence, because that is sometimes where He speaks the loudest.
But if you’re a regular person and the silence of a media fast draws you to the Bible, and if opportunities to digest the Word of God are otherwise few and far between, that might be a good time to take the cue from the Holy Spirit and feast on Sacred Scripture.
No hard and fast rules here–just suggestions and food for thought! Thanks for your input, though.
Yes, good suggestions. I was inquiring more of your rules, if you personally were fasting from the Bible as “books” and if it were a licit thing to fast from. I completely agree that I need myself to listen more. Very hard to have a relationship, when one party is always doing the talking, whining, complaining, and asking and doesn’t let the other party get a word in edgewise. :)
As I said, no hard and fast “rules” here. I wouldn’t “fast” from Sacred Scripture if a time of silence was the only chance I got to really immerse myself in the Word of God. I would only put aside the Bible if it were something I was already getting plenty of the rest of the time.
Personally, I fit into the first category: I don’t read the Bible enough, so on a “media fast” day I might make an exception to my “no books” suggestion and take up the Bible for a good long read.
Your mileage may vary, though. :)