Happily Unplugged
James Martin had a charming piece in America (May 8) on why he doesn’t have e-mail, or even a computer. No Luddite he; it’s simply that he developed a bad case of tendinitis from using his computer too much. In every upset, it’s said, there can be an asset, and Martin’s cup runneth over with assets. The computer-free Martin now handwrites his letters, and — guess what? — people express appreciation for the personal touch. Martin continues: “I don’t have to slog through garbage E-mail messages” — and his pen never crashes. “Do I fret about toting around a laptop to keep up with my date book? No. And the insidious Melissa virus that infected computers worldwide? Hey, no sweat…. Bring on Y2K. My writing pad and I are ready.” (Too bad people don’t get tendinitis from watching television!)
We hear of people spending an hour or two each day wading through and responding to their e-mail messages. The Bruderhof, which runs the Plough Publishing House and puts out The Plough quarterly, reports (in The Plough, Autumn 1998) that, after three years, it has junked its e-mail system entirely. Why? Because it didn’t bring “new energy” but “new fatigue.” Instead of enhancing productivity, it “mostly paralyzed” their operation.
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On the question of how to accommodate second marriages in the Church, most of the key players in the debate, for now, happen to be German bishops and cardinals.
The principal means of teaching in the medieval university was not the classroom lecture but the quaestio disputata (disputed question).