Connecting or not

I was talking with James, the guy who cuts my hair, the other day. He’s a Bay Area native—grew up around Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, now lives in Milpitas and the salon is in Los Altos.

So he’s got a broad perspective on the area. And, while he’s not a technocrat himself, he’s certainly adopted all the tech that has engulfed Gen-XY.

I often ask him about local spots for exploration—where’s a good area to live, where do I find a good park, etc. I do the same with my physical therapist, who grew up in Burlingame and now lives in Redwood Shores.

It was the latter’s recommendation that found me at the Copenhagen Bakery and Café for breakfast just before New Year’s Day. The eggs and bacon were fine, I perused a free local newspaper from a stand right outside and there was good people-watching also for free. (The folks behind the counters were somewhat less than personable, but there you go.)

However—the café did not have Wi-Fi. Which I though passing strange. I mean—a place where you sit down over coffee, in the Silicon Valley (okay—on the northern edge of it), And no Wi-Fi? Really?

As it happened, I hooked into free Wi-Fi from the Sephora store across the street (also a little strange—retail with an open network? Don’t they want you buying eyeliner and D&G perfume instead of checking your emails?). So I wasn’t reduced to reading the sports section of that free newspaper.

When I commented on the experience to James he agreed that it was odd. Then he said something that stopped me in my tracks: “Yeah, because we can’t possibly sit down anywhere without being entertained.”

Oh. Um. Right.

This ties into one of my ongoing TLP resolutions: Pay attention. You can’t be fully mindful of your beautifully poached egg if you’re checking Facebook, or plugged into “Morning Edition”, or emailing some idiot at work. Especially if you’re doing all three at once. Nor can you thoroughly attend to framing that work email if you suddenly notice that you’ve got crumbs in your keyboard.

Thinking about it, having that laptop or tablet out is really kind of a defensive positioning—don’t talk to me, I’m busy; I’m focused on something that’s more important than what’s going on around me. More important than where I am.

But really—what is more important than where you are, where you are at this moment?

What is more important than biting into one of the seven types of toast you can have at Copenhagen Bakery, topped with a splodge of some sort of homemade-looking deeply blue berry preserves, and experiencing the crunch of the toast and the explosion of deeply blue slithery taste in your mouth? What is more important than noticing the people around you—what they’re eating, how they’re conversing with one another, whether they seem to be regulars? What is more important than filling your lungs with the aroma of just-baked bread that permeates the room?

So—what to do?