Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Present of Presence

 We just stopped for a quick bite to eat at a roadside gas station/truck stop on the way to the venue. Touring over the years I have gotten used to the truck stop meals/midnight snacks while the bus fuels up. But we were in a touring van cause it was Europe and this was not your typical truck stop. It was in Bratislava, Slovakia and it was the kind of truck stop that is a car thief's dream. We were staying in Vienna, Austria but because Bratislava is so close the plan was to just drive to the venue and return back to our hotel in Vienna after the show. Before I left my hotel room that day I had a gut instinct to plug my phone in to back up all the pictures to my lap top that I had taken so far on the tour. It was the Richie Kotzen Europe tour in 2009 and it was my first trip to Europe. For so long I had dreamed of going to Europe. I spent lots of time visualizing and putting it on goal lists and I was finally there! And I was so honored to be there playing/touring with Richie Kotzen and my band mate and great drummer friend Demian Arriaga.  I was going to take it all in and take tons of pictures along the way. And I had taken some great pictures with my iPhone so far. Ones that I will never be able to replace. Pictures of castles in Estonia that date back to the 13th century. Pictures of us standing by roadside signs in Lithuania and Latvia and pictures of us boarding a plane in Warsaw, Poland that I thought was way to small and too packed to be able to fly. Pictures of the Italian Alps from my airplane window on the way to Poland. Good stuff and great times. That day in Slovakia everyone was gonna go eat a sandwich and get on the way to the venue. I thought about staying in the van and listening to music but I decided instead to go in and get some lunch too. The odd thing is that I went outside the store and was standing there and noticed a few guys kinda staring at me a little. Like they were keeping an eye on me. Makes more sense in hindsight. When we returned to the van we noticed the door was open. There was a problem. We got robbed! Fortunately they did not take the touring essentials like guitars and stuff like that. They just went through our bags to find stuff like wallets and phones. And my phone was gone. I checked a thousand times but it was gone. Now that may not sound like a big deal and it really isn't but nowadays losing a phone when it can't be replaced immediately can be a big deal. And it was a big deal cause of all those irreplaceable photos. It was a big deal cause that was my only line of communication. On those long rides through Europe I would put on my headphones and listen to music as I stared out the window thinking about how I was the luckiest man on earth to be doing what I was doing. I would play games on my phone too while scenes I had never seen before passed me by. Professionally it was not good cause I used it to play the songs every night for the set warming up in the dressing room. All that was gone. My little device that I relied way too much on. Sounds ridiculous and it is but I feel like I was missing a limb or something. Violent thoughts went through my mind like I wish I could have beaten the thieves to a bloody pulp and I was hoping they were dead in a ditch somewhere for stealing my property. Sounds ridiculous that anyone should die for stealing a phone but those were my thoughts. Guess it must have been the Sicilian blood in me. I wanted bad things to happen to them. For anyone that has had anything stolen from you in a break in scenario it feels like such a violation. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I didn't want to accept it. I walked to a mall in Vienna the very next day to see how much it was to get a new iPhone. But in Europe iphones are twice as expensive and it did not make sense. So I sucked it up and accepted it. It was a major inconvenience but I accepted it. I had to disconnect. Disconnect from technology and the crutch we all are guilty of this day in age. Some are worse than others and I am probably one of the worst violators. Nowadays you can see a table of people and they are not talking, they are all staring at their phones. So there I was driving through the alps of austria staring out the window with no music, games or devices to distract me. Just me and my thoughts and the beauty that surrounded me. Have you ever seen something or had an experience and you are so busy trying to capture a picture of it that you miss the whole event? Not fully absorbing what is in front of you cause you are trying to snap pictures? That happened again to me recently when the space shuttle flew over my house strapped on the back to a 747. Missed being fully present for the whole thing kinda cause I was trying to get good pictures. I feel so bogged down sometimes by the pace of information nowadays and the crutch and reliance of technology that I think I am missing out on a lot of things cause I am not present in the moment. I still had three weeks in the tour and I had that distraction of technology removed from me. What a relief! It was actually the best part of the tour. No way to communicate, no music to listen to, no thought of being distracted by games and taking pictures. I actually did miss not having music to listen to of all things because music helps define moments so clearly. It is like when you hear a song and you can remember exactly where you were and what you were feeling at a certain time. Music can provide like a little emotional time capsule in your brain that when reactivated can bring you right back to a certain point or window of time with all the feelings and pictures associated with it. But at the same time I am glad I did not have it cause I would not have been fully present. Allowing my thoughts to surface at will. Silence is a form of meditation and can be one of the most purifying things for the soul. That day we were traveling through the Austrian alps I let go of my precious phone and was present. A moment came over where I suddenly felt more alive than I had in a very long time. There were many times after that where I would be walking along century old cobblestone streets and I was able to really take in the gravity of the moment instead of being attached to my digital leash. Times where I was sitting in cafe's in Italy with my band mates enjoying good times and conversation not worried about texts, or calls, or games, or pictures. It was the best present I could have received and I thank the universe for it happening. I actually at some point I looked up in the sky and thanked the people who stole my precious phone. It was meant to be. I was present for laughs and conversations with my band mates and crew in the van on the road between locations. I could stare at beautiful things and take a deep breath and take it all in. Phones are like leashes. Especially the way phones are now. Sometimes when I leave my phone at home accidentally I feel a great sense of relief. I love my iPhone, don't get me wrong. And I'm grateful for it but I acknowledge that my reliance on that little device robs me of being present in life a lot of the time. The tendency to constantly communicate with people that are not in front of me and pay so much attention to facebook status's, twitter, and email. I love all those things but I know that is not being present in any way and I am probably missing a lot. Sometimes I feel like life is passing by at the speed of light and I am moving through it like a drone plugged into a power grid. But it is those few moments where I become reconnected that jolts my spirit awake. And those are the best moments in life to me. I get the irony of talking about being present while sitting in front of a computer typing this blog but oddly I feel more present recalling that time in my life and the lesson I thought I learned from this. I just have to remind myself and try and make a conscious effort to make those moments happen more often.

7 comments:

  1. I was in Italy last year and tried to limit my iPhone use but can't even imagine what I would have done had it been stolen. I love how you turned it into a positive and just grew from it, then shared the wisdom with us. Maybe we should all release from our "Digital Leashes" and renew our spirits at times. Thank you for this..really enjoy your blogs AND your bass! Jana~Oregon

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    1. Thanks Jana! If you were in Italy and you lost your phone you would have had to do what I did and just deal with it. And might have enjoyed it more possible. Thanks for reading my blog!!

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  2. Dave you write so beautifully! Two things came to my mind while reading this. One is how I used to have a good friend who came from Bratislava and two, I just spent Thanksgiving with my sister who came up from Florida and all she did (well most of the time) was keep looking at her iphone. I miss my family and thought what happened to just having conversation and talking? Then I looked on the streets of Manhattan and saw everyone doing the same thing. It's like no wonder people are so lonely. No one wants to talk to each other anymore. Everyone is just bogged down in their own little world of technology. It really is sad. Thanks for sharing your story.

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    1. Thanks Patty! I wonder what people will be like in 10 years at this pace. Thanks again for reading!

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  3. You know who is my biggest reminder of the the hazard of too much technology? My kids. They understand the value of face to face attention from mom, sometimes more than mom does. And why a boardgame is better than a video game. This really is beautifully written Dave and yet again.... you have made me think!

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  4. Sicilian, huh? :) I like this story. My favorite day of the week is Thursday, when most of the day I'm forbidden to have my phone on me. Just me and the sea turtles I'm taking care of. It's when I feel most alive - jolt to the soul is right!

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  5. Dave, This is wonderful! You are so insightful and such a great writer! I might have to share with a few of my friends who need to hear it. lol

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