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Writer's pictureDani

Look Up!

I know how to wait. It’s best to keep busy in these times of idleness. I know that doesn’t

make sense, but a client taught me that in waiting there are things that can be done.

He was a trier of patience. He was always pushing the limits of what he would and would not do, so the best thing I learned was to wait patiently with my eyes on other things. I was always present, of course, and I developed a keen side-eye, but in an effort

to not startle him or stop any progress in transition he had made during this time in

between. I, like many others, have found ways to fill the times spent in the in-between. 



A common way to escape this time of idleness and boredom involves reading the words of an authority presented and bound in a book or a phone, the latter being the default for most modern humans because it is handheld and has a larger capacity for knowledge. It provides us with instruction manuals, pacifiers, inspiration, connection, and promises to escape the endless dread of real life; this includes waiting. One can speak of these devices' positives, but what about the negatives?


For most, these devices are seen as benign objects providing only communication and media. This may be true, but extreme and blind positivity reduces our ability to look up and engage. In this way, our phones have become handheld transmitters of authority. They illuminate the chosen and reduce our capacity to engage with the world, ourselves, and others truly.


Girl holding a cell phone
Dan Witz, Rosy Cell Phone, 2007

A perfect example of this is how Trump interacts with his followers. He has an uncanny ability to keep their heads down whilst feeding them regularly with the bread crumbs of nonsense as they fall from his mouth. He regards himself as the keeper of all that is morally just and holy. That he is the cure for all that is unsafe and corrupt.


These words are disseminated like Gospel amongst his followers to appease and possibly quell anxieties, but only if you keep your eyes low while feasting on the crumbs, for it is there that you will receive the light and receive what is promised.



This blind willingness to accept guidance from an authority to remove or reduce anxiety reminds me of a quote from Ecclesiastes (1:18), “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”


The idea of relinquishing the search for knowledge for ease of pain repulses me. Judging by what I’ve observed, during the last decade, a government under Trump could dissolve our capacity to gain access to what he deems outside knowledge. The is all quite dreadful, but there may still be time to retain our world as is, but only if we learn to raise our heads and sit with the discomfort of the in-between.



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