A week spent in a cabin with no TV, no radio, no wifi, no cell service. It was beautiful in many ways – books, games, outdoor family fun.
One unexpected beauty was the simple acceptance of not knowing. I woke up every day not knowing what the temperature was going to be, whether it was going to rain. (Also, not knowing what was happening in Washington D.C. or to all of my friends and acquaintances on social media…)
We experienced unexpected rain showers and rainbows, hot days and cool. Would I have been better off with a forecast from the local meteorologist? I don’t know. I don’t think so.
We are accustomed to knowing. We’re accustomed to predictions and to having the answers to any fact-based question in just a few seconds.
It’s worth taking a step back and, instead of knowing, noticing. Listening and reacting to what we see, rather than what’s predicted.
It’s a gift we can give our students, too. Life is more than the fact-based, switched-on, measurable world that ubiquitous internet provides. (And, by the way, music lives outside of those things, too.)