Example...
The other day I needed to enroll Eddie into the school district for assessments prior to highschool. In order to do so I needed to go IN PERSON and present PAPER copies of my bills and mortgage to prove I'm a resident. I noticed how annoyed I was. I barely know how to find those things. All my bills are auto paid. Beyond that, to print, I couldn't use my phone. I had to use a laptop. I got a new computer and I have to do multistep authentication and then figure out how to download current bills for printing.
Then I needed to figure out where and when I could go to bring all the relevant documentation.
I could feel a bubbling irritation. Turning in Eddie's paper work was one item on a list of to dos for the day and it was taking longer than its allotted time. I thought of 15 ways the process could be made more convenient - namely that I could email some screenshots of all the required paperwork and complete the whole task in less than 15 minutes. But no... we had to do this the old fashioned way.
While I was driving to the school district office, I thought about how many tasks I do in less than 15 minutes that would take at least a few hours the old fashioned way. Bills and paychecks on autopay. Drive-through on the way to activities. Movies and music on demand. And how could I leave out Amazon. If I need literally anything, even things that I might not know exist - I need a dohickey that does such and such - and I can easily find a variety of options, read specifications and reviews, perhaps link to videos and order with a single click for the item to show up the next day and solve whatever problem I had.
If I unfold this experience, it easily takes days or weeks. Talking to people about items that might solve the problem, going to a variety of stores that might carry such items and wandering around to figure out where the items might be shelved. Reading boxes in the aisle to try to understand what the product is or does. Perhaps asking a person who works there if they have any experience with such objects. I may try a few different items before I find the thing that works and solves my problem.
I don't have any beef with convenience. As a mom of 5, convenience is probably the best word marketing can use on me because day to day life with 5 kids is a lot of work. But, as I distance myself from life as usual I've noticed the flip side of the convenience offer.
1. I can do more, I should do more
Now that I don't have to spend all day Saturday shopping for that thing I could have all that time back to rest and still achieve the same thing but that's not the way of the world.
Convenience is a trap to intice us to marketing favorite word "more." I don't fill the gaps with rest or connection (usually speaking) but rather add things to the to do list, pressuring myself to do more and more. If there's a life hack that will allow me to cram more into a day, I'm on it.
2. Convenience steals meditative time
In Haiti, I used to wash all my laundry by hand. It took most of a day.
Let me be perfectly clear. I LOVE my washing machine.
But... simple, manual tasks create a special space for the mind to unfold, rest, pray and create. Think washing and drying dishes, folding laundry, raking leaves. I think the convenience of modern life has pushed me to make more decisions in a day and spend less time in unstructured rest of manual labor. Even though I've dramatically reduced the number of hours I work in the day and increased the amount of housework compared to when I was working full time. Even the monotonous life of a stay at home mom and managing a household requires a ton of mental work - managing schedules, medical appointments, inventory of household goods, finances. As much as I try to push back against the busyness of over scheduling kids activities, I think our era pushes to do all the things because convenience makes it possible to do all the things. And because of this, modern life has little down time.
3. Convenience puts me on auto pilot
Like water going to the lowest place, I find myself making decisions about what to eat, what to do and what to buy mostly out of what is the easiest thing to do.
I set up systems to run my life and my life runs on autopilot. I don't have to make decisions. I've only recently subscribed to a few items on Amazon. It's magical. Things show up when I run out. But.... these items are no longer considered regularly whether or not I need them or if I should do things differently. They are locked in. Of course I can unsubscribe, but mindfulness takes more mindfulness when habits are taken a step further and fully automated.
Again, it's totally magical. But I observe how the sum of all my life automation disconnects me from the certain decisions. I think, in fact , that's part of the appeal. As I mentioned above, my mind is working harder and making more decisions. So why wouldn't I want to off- load mental work?
4. Finally... convenience makes it hard to be patient
Patience is hard. It is called a gift of the spirit for a reason. Patience requires a intentional selflessness. It recognizes that there are things more important than our time and energy that we spend waiting. Every marketing message of convenience tells us the opposite. Those messages place me as the supremely important person who does not deserve to be kept waiting.
Things that require me to choose inconvenience
1 teaching children anything... but especially things like chores that I can easily do myself
2. Relationships - other people and the messiness of talking to them, loving them, forgiving them and holding space for them is incredibly inconvenient- especially when they call when I'm busy.
3. Faith - church when I could sleep in or relax, standing by my values or ideals, living out a call to love others as myself, embracing uncertainty and unknown mysteries of God. All very very inconvenient.
This devotion is a moment to appreciate the conveniences of my world. But also to assert that I am not beholden to them.
I do not need to choose convenience over things that matter more.
I do not need to fill every moment of time saved by a convenient product or service with more work or productivity.
And, I can choose to do things the old fashioned way if it helps to rest my mind or build relationships.
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