Here Is the Antidote for Modern Life

Corbett Barr is the co-founder and CEO of the website Fizzle.co, which helps people earn a living doing something they love.

I discovered Fizzle.co a few years back when I first started blogging and writing online. I used to read their posts but eventually moved on to other content.

Apparently, I was still on one of the Fizzle.co email lists, because I received a recent email from Corbett Barr. In the email, Barr wrote that he was “starting over” and had deleted all the content on his social media accounts. He also plans to delete most of his old blog posts.

Barr’s email explained why he’s doing this digital house-cleaning:

Essentially, I want to make digital room for who I’ve become, and who I intend to be. Much of the old content isn’t serving the new me.

This resonated with me since I’ve been re-evaluating my own online presence, social media habits, and creative work. As Barr notes in his email:

It’s not natural for every thought or scribble you’ve produced to exist publicly for everyone to see for all time. I don’t think we’ve come to terms with that yet, nor do we know how it is affecting all of us.

Solitude can be used well by very few people

I’ve come to recognize that much of our online connections are superficial, and social media sites cater to our vanity. What is the point in sharing photos of our latest workout or dinner meal?

Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity. -Abraham Cowley

Should our self-esteem cling to how many likes or followers we attract? Shouldn’t we be seeking deeper experiences? Can we escape from the popups, shallow tweets, click-bait piffle, and digital self-absorption?

It was in the midst of these questions that I stumbled upon a beautiful short film entitled, “Nobility of the Air.” The film is all about Paul Manning, a professional falconer in Hampshire, England.

While the rest of the world is glued to flashing updates on digital screens, Paul Manning is out in the breathtaking countryside of Hampshire, England, with his majestic birds of prey.

As Manning notes in the film:

Falconry is a wonderful antidote to modern life. We live our entire lives with an ‘I want a fix now and I’ll buy it.’ A relationship with a bird of prey is the complete opposite, it has to be selfless. You have to put the bird of prey first. You have to think about the bird of prey and its needs before your needs.

We are very bad at scale

Our modern lives are meant to be far more than YouTube videos, click-bait distractions, and Zoom chats. Such things are rabbit holes, keeping us from deeper connections and pursuits.

Real-life is about getting out there and experiencing things. Spending hours alone practicing and pursuing a passion until you achieve mastery. Helping others, connecting, and talking in person. Yes, this is harder right now in a pandemic, but not impossible.

Perhaps this is why I love painting outdoors. Every time I pack my paintbox and trudge out into the desert or woods, I feel a sense of freedom and exhilaration. The solitude and creative focus provide a kind of transcendence, far beyond what digital life can offer.

The author, getting ready to paint in Canada.

Even in my art studio, engrossed in drawing or painting, I enter a delicious zone where time seems to standstill.

Such experiences are the antidote for modern living. They rescue us from our self-absorption and the frequently shallow charms of social media and the Internet. They can be found in gardening, hiking, painting, woodworking, recording music, and many more analog pursuits.

The author Helen MacDonald, in her magnificent book “H is for Hawk,” eloquently reminds us how our self-absorption keeps us from seeing so much more.

We are very bad at scale. The things that live in the soil are too small to care about; climate change too large to imagine. We are bad at time, too. We cannot remember what lived here before we did; we cannot love what is not. Nor can we imagine what will be different when we are dead. We live out our threescore and ten, and tie our knots and lines only to ourselves. We take solace in pictures, and we wipe the hills of history.
― Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

Never limit your mind

For falconer Paul Manning, transcendence is found in the nobility of his hawks, soaring above the glorious landscape. Helen MacDonald found it too, with her goshawk. For me, transcendence is found in the creative arts, where ink and paint come together to help me express my artistic vision.

“Never limit your mind; it is capable of great intelligence; or your heart; it is capable of extraordinary kindness; or your soul; it is capable of remarkable transcendence.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo

How about you? Are you tired of the online noise, digital clutter, and blinking distractions of modern life? Do you crave something deeper? Why not restructure your time, to make more room for the people you care about and the creative pursuits that quicken your heart?

There is more to life than endlessly documenting our lives online, and following the social media updates of others. Corbett Barr figured this out, which is why he deleted everything and is starting over.

Maybe we should all start over? It just might be the antidote for modern life.

Before you go

I’m John P. Weiss. I draw cartoons, paint, and write about life. Thanks for reading.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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Artworks by John P. Weiss