Diversion

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Why doesn’t anybody have any time today?  Where did all the time go?

The question is more puzzling than it seems.  We ought to have much more free time than our ancestors did, because technology such as smartphones, which is the most obvious and radical difference between their lives and ours, is essentially a series of time-saving devices.

Our grandmothers washed clothes by hand, and cooked food on a stove with woods.  We push buttons on washing machines and microwave ovens full of prepared food.  Yet our grandmother had more time to talk to her children than we do.  Why?

The Philosopher Blaise Pascal has a simple answer:  diversion.  We want to complicate our lives.   We want to be busy and hassled.  Without knowing it, we want the very thing we complain about.

Our complaint is that we are quite busy, that we have much work at the workplace or at school, and we have no time for rest, peace and silence.

And yet when we have rest, peace and silence because our work at home, school or office is done, we cannot endure the solitude, so we need to entertain ourselves with movies, social media, chat with friends, play sports and other diversions.

That’s why we are scared to death of being alone because that would mean two things: boredom and confronting ourselves.

I will explain the second one, because the first one boredom is experienced by many in our society, so it need not be explained much because it’s common.

We are afraid to confront ourselves in silence because it will remind us of the wretchedness of life (that life is meaningless, directionless plus we are not immortals and we will die sooner or later).

Second, for some people silence and solitude reminds them of their faults and sins in life.

There was once a corrupt anti-drug police in Mexico who was selling drugs.  These were drugs he got from drug peddlers he caught, until he himself got caught and went to jail.  His criminal ways dawned on him when he was alone in his prison cell.  He had not realized his sinful ways  until he was alone with himself and with God.  The story ended well though because he reconciled himself with God after his sentence, and is now living a clean and Godly life.

Solitude is something the saints would love to do because it means being alone talking to God.  Sinners would do everything they can to avoid solitude.  It tells you why our world is in trouble because it does not want to be alone with God.

“The fruit of solitude is silence.  The fruit of silence is prayer.  The fruit of prayer is faith.  The fruit of faith is love.  The fruit of love is service.  And the fruit of service is peace.”  (St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta)