There Are No Weeds On My Screen

Is online actually reality?

I’d argue anything that can totally disappear with a power surge is not reality. Reality is what was here before online. Reality is what will be here after.

My garden is reality.

Online is projection of reality at best and an illusion at worst. And yet those who live and breathe fire online, walk and talk as if their world is a screen. As if like some kind of Mad Alice they can actually fall into their screen and find themselves caught in a digital surrealism.

I was always confused by Cancel Culture because all you had to do to stop being canceled was put down your phone. No one was chasing you from the actual school yard. Or maybe I’m too old and too naive about these things.

Online is not reality.

I’ll go farther. Artificial Intelligence is not reality. It’s all screen world and screen world is not reality. Social media is not reality. What exists? An email or a letter you can hold and feel?

Not many people yell at me when I walk down the street and I’m a New Yorker. But people yell at me all the time online. Online is a shit fest of barbed opinion, but that’s mainly because online is not reality. You simply can’t act in reality like you do online. It would get you arrested or punched. It would get you looks. You’d actually see what people think of you. You’d FEEL the judgement.

So step back, take a walk, feel the wind on your skin, hear the church bell chime in the neighborhood, hear the kids playing in the park.

That’s reality. Get offline.

I’m on my way to a singing circle. I’ve never done that before, but as my workday has become a screen, I find I need to chase reality as much as I can. To be in a room with people taking breath. To feel the air vibrating with raised singing voice. That’s reality, a sweet beautiful reality.