On-Call and On-Line Living

There I was in my second coffee shop of the day.  OK, a little over kill.  The first one was planned.  The second one was to pass the time.  I was waiting for my ride home and decided the coffee shop next to my friend's office was more inviting than the chair in her waiting room.  

I really enjoy coffee shops.  When I enter into a coffee shop something in me goes, "yeah, play". Today as I sipped my decaf coffee I couldn't help but notice what people were doing and saying.  Yes, I was eavesdropping once again on all the English conversations.  It occurred to me that there were business meetings going on both in person and on the telephone.  In a coffee shop? 3 out of 4 people had their laptops out working on something. I had no idea I had entered into a work place. If I had a chance to do work and have business meetings in a coffee shop, I'd be there too!  It is mixing work with play.  I get it.  Yet I also question what underlying values we're sipping when we mix so much work with play.  

I am struck by what I'm noticing in the culture around me; work life, personal life, and many other "lives" are converging onto each other.  The lines between "I'm working" and "I'm socializing" and "I'm playing" are becoming blurred with the wonderfully helpful technology of our day---and the many hospitable coffee shops! Does anyone else notice this?  In some ways it is a good thing that various life aspects are converging onto each other.  Like in the spiritual sense it is good.  There is value in the convergence of the spiritual with occupation.  It is great when we have a social life with the people we call "co-workers" or "family".  Yet, is it great when the lines between work and play become thinner and thinner until all of us live "on-call" and "on-line" lives?  It is so easy for work to win out when mixed with play.  And work wins out with all the helpful tools afforded to us by our modern time. These concerns are coming from one who knows she spends way too much of her life online!  I know such concerns are WAY beyond the scope of coffee shop culture. 

Yet, what does it say about a people and culture who have taken a place of play and turned it into a place of work?  And where are our places of play for play's sake?  We take our cell phones everywhere.  We can access e-mails and internet almost anywhere. When do we rest? 

Something has to give or we will have given everything for nothing. In a culture saturated with on-call and on-line lifestyles there is a huge need for life giving structures and rhythms which allow us to rest, play and create.  We need rest from our restless living.  I can't help but think of my monastic friends whose prayer rhythms provide a framework for all of their lives--the work part, social part and rest part.   In our changing and evolving culture there is the great potential for sapless living.  We need to match our cultures changes for work with changes in how we rest and play.  There is a need to disconnect in order to connect. We need to have more and more conversations about life giving rhythms that help give shape to all of life. Such a framework might allow us to be a master(instead of slave) to the on-call and online living.