Long Play

On May 13th Daft Punk’s new album “Random Access Memories” became available to stream in full on iTunes. Since then I’ve been trying to find the time to listen to the 74 minute album straight but I haven’t had the time.

How disappointing is that? Very.

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I’ve fooled myself, as I believe a lot of us have, into thinking that I can become a master of multitasking. At any given point in the day I’ll be on my Mac with multiple spaces open and at least 4 open tabs in Safari. iTunes is usually streaming music to my Apple TV as I use 3 and 4 finger gestures to navigate my digital workspace. My iPhone is of course readily accessible to message using SMS, iMessage, Facebook Chat, GroupMe, Whatsapp and Skype.

Being hyper connected has enabled all of us to accomplish great things, but at what cost?

After work on Monday I was rushing to the west island of Montréal towards St. John Fisher to partake in an hour of adoration from 6pm to 7pm. A great friend, Glen, was driving me and a few other sisters, but due to traffic we got there a bit late, around 6:10. When we walked into the chapel I found a place to sit down and I immediately put my phone on silent and knelt before the Lord. After a few minutes of trying to focus solely on Jesus I was greeted with a familiar itch to check my notifications. I picked up my phone but somehow resisted the urge and ended up opening the Living with Christ app to reflect on the gospel.

At 7pm I did my final prayer and left the adoration chapel and the first thing I did was to check my missed notifications. I was waiting outside expecting Glen and the other sisters to come out, but they didn’t come. I waited and waited and started to feel sort of guilty for leaving right away. Finally, at about 7:10 Glen and another sister came out.

Later on that night I asked Glen quite simply, “how was your time in adoration?”, to which he replied, “good, I needed the whole hour”.

Lesson learned.

Today I commit myself to take the time to listen to “Random Access Memories” front to back, because there’s a beauty in the way the artists arranged this album. They put their heart and soul into it and hoped for us to experience it in a certain way.

The Lord gives us hope, and to receive it we just need to sit and listen.

– Jesse R.