Off the Grid, Bathing in Waves

IMAGE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS BY FIR0002/FLAGSTAFFOTOS

I’m going to Indonesia for two weeks, and I’m not bringing any computers with me.

I couldn’t figure out which of those facts was more exciting, so I combined them into one sentence.

My parents, my younger brother, and I have all had momentous years, so we are celebrating together by taking this trip. We’ll be biking and walking through places I’ve dreamed of seeing.

In particular, I’m looking forward to the music. I studied Balinese and Javanese gamelan in college. I think of musical ensembles as hyper-intelligent super-organisms, and gamelans are highly evolved ones. The contributions of the many interlocking performers combine to generate these exquisitely complex waves. I’m going to bathe myself in them.

I’ll also get to bathe in some ocean waves.

Here are some waves in which I will not be bathing: cell phone radiation, Wi-Fi radiation, or any waves of information carried over the Internet. It will be a full-spectrum digital detox, and I can already feel myself healing from it.

I’ve got good books, lots of blank paper, various pens, and a digital audio recorder powered by one AAA battery. I’m bringing two disposable film cameras. But the point is not to capture this. The point is to go do it and have it happen to me.

Have a good Internet until I return. I hope December 21, 2012 is the most utterly mundane day in human history, and that’s all I’ll miss by being offline that day. And I hope you have happy holidays, interesting conversations, and satisfying experiences until I see you online again.

I’m sure I’ll have a few stories to tell when I get back.