My partner lay against my chest, lightly snoring, in perfect peace. Up until recently this is something he wouldn’t necessarily do. Sure we cuddle every morning, and cringe on a work day when the alarm goes off, negotiating extra time in bed from the day that awaits. Mostly he insists on cuddling me, keeping me secure from the world outside beyond our bed, but as mature age creeps by, he’s happy to allow me to be the protector.
“Relaxing Foot On Bed” by mack2happyv
If we turned the clock back a few months, one of us would give in to that annoying middle-aged trend to wake early and seize the day. Well, seize the day in front of the laptop. If it was me, I’d check emails and see what my Twitter and Facebook friends were up to, or if it was my husband, Facebook and the Sydney Morning Herald would be his sites of choice. And of course he’d search for new music for our radio show.
But the desire to ‘connect with the world’ has dissipated for the moment. There’s no urgent rush to see what Facebook’s version of William Justice is up to; what interesting and fascinating world or art news Dane McFadden is sharing, or where ‘T-Dub’ and his beautiful partner have been. And in Twitterland my longing to learn what new recipe Varia is trying out or to send out Friday Follows to my posse, has taken a backseat for the moment. Not that I don’t care, it’s just that my own physical life is calling, and not my cyber one.
What I do love about social media though, is its way of making us connect with a wider community the way people in the 1970s did when they discovered the CB radio, or if you’re my age, hearing different worlds enter the home through the magic of short wave radio.
For some of us the connection with the citizens of this planet is great for our psyche, finding our own little communities to be part of. But Warren and I have always, and still do, have a very active social life. And it’s a different life to what we share online.
Besides, even the CB radio-heads or those that connected through foreign broadcasts, didn’t let these trends rule their lives.
At a recent gathering, our friends shuddered in horror when they learned the one smart phone we own is never left in data mode. If I need to read my email or check something online, then I’ll switch it on, but there’s no need to know 24/7 if I have a notification from cyberspace. I’ve lived most of my life not knowing what someone halfway across the world is eating for lunch, and somehow I don’t think that information is going to change my life on a Saturday afternoon when we’re holding a dinner party.
So this morning we slept in. I cuddled my husband the way we have for many years on a Sunday morning. We ignored our six o’clock body-clock wake up call, so we could surrender to slumber. This was our time together, as it should be on any weekend.
Blog by Kevin Klehr, author of the Drama Queens novels. READ THE REVIEWS
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