You Can't Soar from a Prison Cell
Christopher Laney 
Imagine for a moment you're confined to a prison cell. It’s not the dark, dank room we’ve grown accustomed to expect from the movies, but is instead comfortable. You’ve decorated it with several items from home, but you’re confined nonetheless. There’s an impenetrable 12 x 18 inch plexiglass window in your cell that allows you to view the outside world. In fact, your family and friends can amble up anytime you have your face close to the window and talk to you if they’d like.
These welcome visitors bring colorful photos of other friends and family, and gorgeous locales, many places you once visited, and they press those snapshots directly to the window so you can soak in their beauty: vivid flowers of every hue; brown trees with pale green leaves the color of spring, stretching toward Monet skies; a serene lake, a second set of snow capped mountain peaks etched within its reflection.
Friends write letters and the prison guard opens them, pressing the careful writing to the window so you can read every word. There’s a typewriter in the cell so you can respond to these friends who’ve graciously written during your confinement. In fact, you can virtually see or read anything you want via this window, but over time a sadness sinks in, a melancholy realization that life is passing you by. You miss smelling flowers, you long to climb those trees, inching upward toward painted skies. You’d give anything to row a boat across the calm lake, accompanied by loved ones so you can hug them, not just view them through a tiny window.
Now imagine someone arrives with a key and flings the cell door open wide. He says, “You are free to go. You are free to live your life.” How would you feel? What would you do?
After reading this conjured scenario, are you glad you don’t have to experience it; are you happy it’s just a hypothetical situation? Think again…
At some point during the day, a majority of us confine ourselves in exactly this way. That 12 x 18 window in our story is really your computer screen with the internet behind it. Maybe your window is a bit bigger, perhaps a little smaller. Doesn’t matter. You are still living a portion of your life virtually.
Before anyone thinks I’m knocking computers or the internet, I must say I love both and believe they’re wonderful tools. But there is a dark side, a lure that when followed, leaves us feeling hollow inside. Television was its precursor, but the internet changed the game. Now we interact. We feel productive. We feel powerful. But the only way we are truly powerful is when we control the internet and not the other way around.
Do you log on the internet to accomplish chores and then log off so you can interact with the real world, pursue the activities that will bring you closer to your dreams? Or do you log on to check one thing, then get sucked down a series of rabbit holes until an hour or two has passed? If that happens, how do you feel afterward? Are you refreshed? Energized? Or do you feel a sadness that something is not quite right, that there must be something better out there for you?
I will tell you there is something better waiting for you, but you must jump out of your seat, sprint from your prison cell and search for it. I guarantee you won’t find it using Google search.
Trust me. You are meant to soar. But you’ll never get off the ground with a computer chained to your wings.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 10:29PM | in Balance, Flying, Guidance, Limitless Living, Reaching Your Dreams, Success | Stumble, Digg, etc. | 15 Comments Email Article
Reader Comments (15)
It is amazing how being in front of a computer is a time warp. How easy it is to slip into ludicrous speed and subsequently go plaid (shameless movie reference). What is meant to take 15 minutes takes an hour. It is like quicksand sometimes, the more "you move around" the farther you sink into the depths. What did I log on for? How did I end up at strange foods of Uruguay? As the old saying goes, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing," tools are meant to make us more productive and simplify our lives. Too often they become anchors instead of sails.
Thank you for the post Chris. You continue you to bring to light habits that keep us grounded.
Chris, I couldn't agree more. The internet is such a draw to suck your attention from other things vastly more important. Social websites, in and of themselves, are a time zapper. I used to spend hours on myspace and facebook, had them up all day in fact - writing, awaiting responses, wasting valuable time. I gave that addiction up in January of this year. Then...in February I started my blog and that became another addiction only because I promised myself to post everyday. Why I put such incredible pressure on myself is beyond me, no doubt a personality flaw. But...with time and reflection I've discovered what's really important and that is embracing quality in every moment of every day. And...when you do that you focus on all the things that enrich your world; family, friends, work, and engaging in random acts of kindness. It's amazing how a flip in focus can boost your self esteem, renew the smile and laughter, and open up beautiful new world to enjoy at your leisure.
A friend gave me this list below awhile back, I found it amusing, I'm sure you will as well.
Good things,
~Lo
Top 10 Signs You're Addicted to the Net
10. You wake up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your e-mail on the way back to bed.
9. You get a tattoo that reads "This body best viewed with Netscape Navigator 1.1 or higher."
8. You name your children Eudora, Mozilla and Dotcom.
7. You turn off your modem and get this awful empty feeling, like you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
6. You spend half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap...and your child in the overhead compartment.
5. You decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just for the free Internet access.
4. You laugh at people with 2400-band modems.
3. You start using smileys in your snail mail.
2. The last mate you picked up was a JPEG.
1. Your hard drive crashes. You haven't logged in for two hours. You start to twitch. You pick up the phone and manually dial your ISP's access number. You try to hum to communicate with the modem.
You succeed.
Hey Chris, Great writing and so true. The internet and computers in general can be addictions. Interesting that your computer might be working but your life has crashed. Emily
A-MEN. On our recent vacation I was blissfully computer free for 10 days. To be honest, the first 2 days were tough... I found myself feeling a bit lost w/out e-mail to check. Then I forgot about computers entirely. It made me feel resigned to return home and log on, knowing the hundreds of e-mails that awaited attention, neglected blog and social networks... frankly, if it weren't for having to have the whole "author platform" in place, I'd seriously consider chucking it all. A good book, walk, or conversation is no match for time spent surfing online. I love the visual you provided - very eye-opening. Thanks.
Once again, you're right on target. We writers all use and need computers and with the delightful blogs of friends, the social networks, the research resources, and the communication tools of computers, we could spend our entire lives in front of them; thereby, destroying our humanity. The trick is to take advantage of the efficiency of computers and the Internet without sacrificing the quality of living a real life. Quite a challenge. You've presented the problem. Now, we need to come up with a solution. Not so easy.
Living and working from another country, the computer is essential for me to be able to work and stay in touch with those I love who are 5000 miles away. That said, anything done to excess to the point that it is impacting your ability to live your life and the quality of your relationships must be explored! I like being "connected", but I don't have to be (or want to be) connected 24 hours a day seven days a week. I'd hate to think we've given up the real thing to live our lives through machines! I'll never forget the Mardi Gras that I was standing in a crowd on Jackson Avenue waiting for the Zulu Parade. A guy standing next to me was on his cell phone the whole time, even when the parade began to pass! I bet you know who got the Zulu coconut! Thanks for a provoking post, Chris!
What a powerful lesson you've written! It is so true. As a person who is near the end of her life, I find that time is incredibly precious. Every minute matters. I look back and wish I had understood earlier how valuable each relationship is. The best investment of our time that we can make is valuing and encouraging people who intersect our lives, whether family, friends or casual acquaintances.
Love this post! "You were meant to soar"....what a great, positive, uplifting, and encouraging message you have hear. This was such a great post to read. Thank you for writing it!
Great post, Chris......and I need to heed your advice, and stay off of the computer and live life!! As much as we might think we are living our life via the comuter, we're not.
I find that my computer has allowed me to 'connect' with people all over the world that I would never know otherwise. That being said....I can hardly wait to meet some of these same people in person, share a glass of wine and truly have a conversation!
Thanks for everyone's insightful comments. I always love to hear from you all.
Being in the Internet marketing industry, it is a slippery slope every time I go to "work" (which usually involves just checking on my outsourcers). But nonetheless involves a computer and internet. Without self-control, a lack of productivity would consume my day to day activities.
Great post Chris!
Glad you liked it, Bradley and I'm with you. I have to make sure I don't just pop on the Internet to check some facts when I'm writing, or else I find time just seems to disappear.
No question, the computer is alluring trap. Sadly, using it is the only effective way of creating the books I write.
As an aside, I've often though that worst possible punishment for a pilot would be to be sentenced to serve time in a prison near an airport. I've often thought of that as I fly over prisons next to Stockton and Merced, CA.
Funny you say that, Max. I went to boot camp in San Diego and the airport was nearby. Boot camp can feel like prison sometimes and for two months, I watched those planes soar overhead and I wanted nothing more at the time to be on one of them heading home. :)
What kind of books do you write? I use the computer to write as well, but I'll often write longhand when I feel it's getting in the way, or being a distraction. I've also started to use Mac Freedom to shut down the wireless connection for a period of time. Works wonders.