Against the tide: some thoughts on navigating the modern world

The power of little things, being uncomfortable, keeping things real

The Snowy Mountains in Summer, New South Wales

In their article, Guideposts for an Age of Technological Upheaval, Peco and Ruth discuss what we can do to spare us from the negative impact of technology, keep us rooted in reality, and deepen what it means to be human. They asked their readers to share their stories.

My husband has worked in the IT industry ever since completing his electrical engineering degree at the age of 21. Two of my sons and both my sons-in-law also work in the IT space, a couple of them in cyber security. They are all aware of the hazards involved in its use and misuse and for the main part, they tend not to be keen on social media. But involvement with technology has paid our bills and put food on the table for over three decades. And we can all see at least some of the benefits of technology or we wouldn’t be here on Substack.

I’d be a Luddite if I hadn’t married an engineer. My contribution to our married life was a spinning wheel, a loom, some musical instruments, a copy of Jane Eyre & Pilgrim’s Progress and a two-seater car. We didn’t have a T.V. so my dad asked if we’d like one as a wedding present. I suggested a sewing machine instead, which is still fully functional. Not having a T.V. in the home, especially when our children came along, was our first noticeable act of going against the tide of our culture. It was a little thing for us. We didn’t think of it as a deprivation, but just about everyone else around us did.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading about exercise in recent years and a phrase has stuck in my mind, ‘death by comfort.’

Exercise is uncomfortable. I always feel disinclined to get up to the park on a cold morning and get in some cardio and weights with some other women three times a week. We all complain but once we’ve finished our 45 minutes, we are a much happier group.  

This idea of death by comfort has been a motivator for me. It helps me to tackle a difficult book, look up words I don’t know or am not sure of, memorise scripture, get up and move around, practice my guitar, or write a long letter instead of sending a quick email. These are small things but they are diffusive acts that seep into other areas of our lives.

Integrity

The word Integrity comes from the Latin word integer (integritas) or whole number; meaning that a person of integrity is a whole person, unimpaired and of a sound, understanding mind.

Integrity takes in the whole moral character and we are continually making or marring this character. The early 20^th Century educator, Charlotte Mason, said:

...let us do each bit of work as perfectly as we know how, remembering that each thing we turn out is a bit of ourselves, and we must leave it whole and complete; for this is Integrity.

Finishing what I start whether that’s a patchwork quilt with hundreds of handsewn hexagons or some other unfinished object

Keeping my word even when it hurts

Keeping things real – not projecting a different person or image to who I am in real life

Living a faithful life when no one is watching

Not worrying about promoting myself: ‘Let another praise you, and not your own mouth,’ —Proverbs 27

Continuity

This is another idea that pushes against the stream. It is a way of stability and unbrokenness; a sense of ‘staying.’

My husband & I have been married for 36 years. We’ve stayed together in the face of difficulties and change, joy and loss. I was so afraid of getting married, but I knew the man I was pledging myself to was a stayer. I wondered about my staying ability after the brokenness of my own background, but we made our vows, ‘Calling on the Grace of God,’ and here we are. Going against the stream, day in, day out; nothing heroic, just little acts of faithfulness and commitment.

So I don’t have any stellar stories to tell, just some small ideas:

Don’t always default to the comfortable option (make soup from scratch, bake a loaf of bread instead of buying it now & again, move your body regularly, use your brain, walk instead of driving if you can, have a cold shower occasionally…)

Be a person of integrity (don’t be fake, acknowledge someone else’s ability or skill, finish that jumper you’re knitting, return the book you borrowed)

Pass on an inheritance…family traditions, the knitted baby clothes your grandma made; invest in your friendships long term; honour your vows & commitments

Read old books, make do with what you have, have relationships with older people and those who are younger.

At the end of her book, Middlemarch, George Eliot wrote this:

…the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life…

Amen