Inspiration #3

I’ve recently been scrolling though my blog archive and came across a few posts titled “Inspiration”, in which I wrote out quotes that, as the title suggests, inspired or otherwise moved me. I just finished reading Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton, and found this quote from the novel especially thought provoking:

“When exactly had she become so technologically dependent that her first instinct in every unpredicted circumstance was to outsource her imagination to her phone?”

This phrase, “outsource her imagination”, struck me. I was just talking on this exact topic with my cousin on a morning walk; we were wondering how far our trek had been, and the immediate impulse was to reach into a pocket and withdraw the phone, checking the tracking app showing distance, steps, calories, and assorted other measurements used to judge the success of the athletic endeavor. It made me think back to when we walked just for the sake of walking, rather than to be able to say “this morning I walked 6 kilometers” or some similarly quantifiable achievement.

I was just on Humani, my other cousins’ ranch in Zimbabwe, and took this photo of my foot beside the print of an elephant. Elephants are migratory, and so measure their distances traveled in terms of places reached and left behind. I aspire now to try to think similarly, to use my imagination as the source, rather than delving always into the glowing screen to find my sense of direction.

Does this quote similarly inspire you?