Japan

In Haukijarvi, Finland, I'm not able to use my phone. I could use my phone but it would be costly and I'm not here that long. At first it was entirely decided by the cost but the longer I go without looking at my iPhone to get email, twitter feeds and calls, the more I forget that I have a phone. The technology that drew my attention to it 40+ times / day because of its multi-functionality in the US has become an ipod and a place where I use my music generator apps much more than I think about the possibility of receiving anything from this device from the outside world. It has become a private device. I am quickly, and gladly forgetting what I perceived to be my "need" to be connected.

I realized this was my growing feeling about constant contact when I got the news, several hours late, about the earthquake in Japan. A friend at the residency was very worried because of her lack of contact with a wider world. Contact with family and friends who live in Tokyo. Remembering 9/11 and the flood of phone calls into and out of New York, power failures and other disruptions to the constant communication infrastructure that day left people in and out of the city worried and confused about the safety of their loved ones. We looked, that day, at our cell phones cursing the fact that they can't actually do everything that we want, they aren't magic and life is bigger than the place they hold in it. Within 7 hours, my friend was able to contact her family and they are all safe. It was a relief.

It's been a long time since I've waited so long to get information about something big. There are times and reasons that people may withhold information from me for days or even weeks but that is a different kind of relationship than the democratic access that I've come to believe is embedded in my phone (right under the sim card I guess). It was an emotional and exhausting day. It left me without words and wanting to be very private and disconnected from the technologies that might give me the immediacy of information and facts that I had craved those many hours that I couldn't make that connection.

I've been following the problems with the Japanese nuclear reactors since the following morning and have great fears and concerns for the impact these dangerous devices may cause for so many in the world. I began this post thinking I would talk about the hypocrisy of the people in Washington DC who have been promoting nuclear as a "clean fuel" option. I guess I did just talk about that but somehow the 7 hours of disconnect, emotion and fear for the family of my friend feel larger in my heart than the criticism of others at this moment.