What Can You Live Without? – Part 2
May 22, 2017
In Part 1 of What can you live without?, I started with the kitchen. This room is my comfort zone; my retreat where I can be creative and nourishing of both body and soul. In this next part, I’ll review the “BIG” things that I can’t live without, personally anyway.
Car
I hate that my car is on my list. I really, truly do because I know it’s entirely possible, plausible and doable to live without a car. Many people do. It’s truly a luxury item and for where I live in comparison to where I work, a necessity.
My home is about 25 miles by drive, about 18 miles as the crow flies, between my home and employer. I own my property and while moving is always an option, for me, it’s not been financially the best option. Instead, I’ve augmented my commute with public transportation.
Yes, I could take a sequence of buses from my home to my office. The entire ride, across at least three lines, would take approximately 2.5 hours each way. I choose to add our SunRail train service which affords me less time on the road, the opportunity to work with free Wi-Fi, and a reduction of my personal car usage.
If I lived in a big city, one with a decent, reliable, quick and regular public transportation system, I would shed my car in a heartbeat. I like my car. I like driving my car, but I don’t want my car. I want eco-friendly, trustworthy mass transit. Maybe one day, maybe even in Orlando.
The Internet
Try as hard as I might, I don’t think I could live without the Internet. Yes, I pay for two services; one on my cell phone (more on that below) and a second for my residence.
The Internet is core to my job, my skillset, and my career beyond its role in our society. It has easily been more than five years since I’ve completely disconnected myself.
For one reason or another, I can justify being “always on.” The device in my pocket or within arm’s reach at any moment is definitely a contributing factor.
Regardless of where I live, of my career, or of my interests I know I’m a news junkie, social media maverick, and digital dude. I will always be connected. If (or when) the apocalypse comes and we’re disconnected, I’ll shift back to the old Internet … the radio, telegraph, smoke signals, whatever!
Cell Phone
Yep, it’s a big item because of its price tag, although one of the smallest items on any of my “can’t live without” lists.
A cell (or mobile for my friends across the pond) phone has evolved in the past two decades from a device that could make a phone call, send a text message, store contacts, and play worm, to one that can just about anything measuring heart rates, tracking our physical activity, while still offering the ability of a dreaded phone call. And while those classic phones are making a comeback, the smartphone has changed the way we work, live, communicate, love, hate, travel, and so much more.
Quick, when was the last time you physically went to the bank? How about the last time you used your bank’s app, or PayPal, or Venmo? Exactly. The device has been a paradigm shift for every industry and society in nearly every facet of living.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I can’t live without my mobile. Yes, I have a fancy iPhone as my choice device. I’m an Apple home and I’m okay with that. I won’t go into why I have my specific phone, other than it fits both my needs and lifestyle.
However, whether it was a free phone or $1,000+ iPhone, the ability to be connected, share my thoughts, capture moments with its digital camera (at some point we’ll just start knowing ‘camera’ as inherently digital), or having the world’s wealth of knowledge and information all at my fingertips, is priceless and a necessity of life. Forgetting my phone is one of the only forgotten things for which I will return home. I simply can’t live without it.
Phone? Wallet? Keys … in that order, as I walk out the door.
What are the three big things that you couldn’t live without? Why can’t you give them up, if even for a day?
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Car, Cell Phone, Internet, iPhone, Mobile Phone, What Can't You Live Without,