Going Offline

Five days, four nights without technology felt a bit strange, I must admit. As with all trips I’ve taken, the best part was going home. But before I skip to that part, the Grand Canyon indeed was a sight to behold. It made me feel so small, both in a good way and bad. There are a lot of things to be said about being small (and I should know this best) but the good part about it is that being small, figuratively speaking, makes you feel that there are larger forces at work and that thank God, there are things beyond your control. Natural miracles like the Grand Canyon, or in my own view, the sublime elegance of the Sea of Galilee/Lake Kinneret, are impossible to behold without an appreciation of the unseen hands of nature, of God or something much larger than ourselves.

Here is a picture of the Canyon. They say you can have 10,000 views of it. I thought I’d stick with just a few.

And then we had free breakfast at the lodge.

 

On the other hand, things are in fact out of your own control. And there lies the problem. Recent events have forced me to reflect on this truism more than the usual, thanks to the lack of technological distractions around me. It seemed more akin to being tossed around helplessly by huge waves in the midst of a gale. So if you’re not the type to embrace that kind of challenge, well, suffice it to say, it will be a bit of a bummer. So I had a few of those “thinking” shots.

On the lighter side of things, countless hours on the bus and plane combined, made me come up with some ideas about my project. No eureka moment of any sort, but just enough to keep me going. I just finished John Fabian Witt’s fascinating book Cosmopolitans and Patriots: The Hidden Histories of American Law, which led me to read the current one, Thomas Bender’s A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History. I am still trying to learn the art of skillfully skimming, instead of reading the entire darn thing. The next few days will be quite packed, to say the least, mostly because of stuff that’s not related to my project. Spring break is halfway done, and I am just starting. Things are beyond my control, indeed.