Tired of the 0s and 1s
Yearnings of gut, hands, and eyes8.20.26
Dear EARTH MOTHERS,
Please unplug me.
I’m feeling tired of all of us, the way we individually and collectively gaze into the abyss of screens.
Unplug us all.
Signed,
Tired of the 0s and the 1s
Dear Tired,
“Unplug us all” is a gut feeling if there ever was one. And EARTH MOTHERS’ guts share it. Let us wipe these monstrous machines clear, scrap them, and never look back.
However. There’s already plenty of gut energy in the world right now - unfocused, destructive, unchecked. Grabbing power wherever it can. And while guts have great intelligence, they are only one part of the body. Also brilliant are the heart, mind, liver, hands, feet. And those other parts know well the ties that bind us to our devices (work, friends, family, community life).
For these reasons, we’re disinclined to go with the gut on this one. We’d rather approach this problem through some other parts of the body. Specifically, those parts most intensively engaged with digital devices: eyes and hands.
In his new book Maintenance: Of Everything, Stewart Brand (creator of the 1960s Whole Earth Catalog) discusses how, before the automobile, horses were the prevalent means of transportation for humans. Brand describes the loveliness of human-horse relationships and muses, “I wonder if that might come again someday — a vehicle that cares back.”
EARTH MOTHERS know that if computers cared back, people would treat them quite differently than we do. We can’t say what this would look like exactly, but it would likely involve adopting behaviors in deference and care for them. And this might lead to using them less: because people would respect computers’ needs for rest, and because being in relationship with them would be its own kind of work. People would, themselves, sometimes need a break.
For these reasons, a relationship of mutual care with computers and phones would probably be better than the current situation. But that is not the world (yet?) in which we live. Is there any way to kindle this quality of relationship, in its absence?
We believe yes - though it is admittedly, a bit odd. And here we return to eyes and hands. We propose that you practice thinking of your eyes and hands as horses who care back.
This is a dissociative approach. As such, it runs counter to EARTH MOTHERS’ deeply-held convictions about body-mind being. We do not typically endorse thinking of one’s body as separate from oneself. Doing so has gotten many modern people into all sorts of trouble. It is no way to live, no way to motivate. Humans are bodies in the world, and it is good to live fully into this fact.
All that acknowledged, a soupçon of dissociation might be useful in this particular case, as a temporary measure. The oddity of it can serve a larger purpose, which is - paradoxically - to reawaken the corporeal self.
If you think of your hands and eyes as horses who care back, you can position yourself to better care for them. Observe them, perceive what they yearn for. And then, be generous to them: meet their yearning, and respond to it.
Here is one example of how that can play out. A popular strategy for reducing the temptingness of phones is to turn the screen from color to grayscale. This tactic is, in fact, measurably effective: it has been shown to reduce peoples’ desire for their screens. It seems that human eyes find saturated, vivid color to be absolutely delicious.
How might you care for your color-voracious eyes? How can you give them the visual energy that they yearn for? You could intensify the hues of your clothing, walls, home goods, you name it. Or go for color walks, with the aim to get as much light-spectrum-saturation into your system as you can. Soak up more color in the world, show yourself that your phone cannot compete.
Another idea: give your hands something wonderful to hold and carry (something nicer than your phone). A perfectly sized and shaped rock, perhaps, or an object with nice weight, or a wonderful soft or nubbly texture. Make it really lovely: a true gift for the hands, worthy of all the work they do for you.
Caring for your eyes and hands will serve two larger purposes: it will amplify the sensuality of your bodily world, and it will strengthen your awareness of it. EARTH MOTHERS trust that, as you practice being a consciously sensual body, you won’t need the dissociation any longer. As you become gradually more sated and aware, the spectral will loosen its grip on your fleshy self.
The essential keys here are generosity and patience. Your eyes and hands do so much work for you! Be kind to them. Let them rest. Feed them nice things: textures, colors, things to hold and carry, whatever they desire. Make this a practice, make it a habit. Slowly, bit by bit, the whole of your body will breathe more easily - and need screen-soothing less than it did before.
And then, perhaps, after this practice and conditioning, you (we) will be wholly ready to act on that message from the gut.
EARTH MOTHERS