The unidentifiable beauty of being app-less

So are they coming over for tea or not? In the moment of realizing that an appointment with friends seems to be forgotten, the aggravation of being uninformed lasts for a few minutes. After that, other, more worrying, thoughts nestle into your brain. Maybe a flat tire or, even worse, an accident. Maybe they won't come because of a not cleared-up misunderstanding or a secret open nerve that needs some healing attention. Although you realize that personal circumstances have forced a kind of survival instinct upon you, it doesn’t mean you should have to be concerned about an ever so spontaneous friendship, but yet you feel all those insecure thoughts creep in your head after the first few minutes of being disappointed. The tiny world you're living in is big. Tiny in the sense of friendships and relationships with equally minded companions in the struggle that entail these economic dark days, big as in the distance you need to travel on the vibrating Portugese roads that are meandering through the valleys, to meet on each others hilltop. Usually your worries are unfounded, mostly the state of the fuel gauge shows to be the decisive reason. It happens more often lately; our traveling range is curtailed by the budget that's left for holy traveling fluid.

Social media, as Facebook and Google+, are a welcoming additions to communicate, however aren't suitable to replace that kitchen table conversations. Even the private messenger applications that come with these and scroll up from the bottom of a laptop screen will never be able to replace a chat over coffee or tea and remain misty words without the nonverbal expressions while stirring a spoon in a cup. The thumbs up, or worse, the lack thereof, while posting a message or picture, appears to be of the highest importance and the rate at which reactions are placed a measure of mutual friendship. The simple life that we live is partly out of conviction and, without beating about the bush, also the result of unconscious decisions in the past. There's no financial room, nor the need to possess, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and all these other modern day devices, but sometimes it feels like being infected by some communicative blindness in the world of app's.

When being at home there's an old-fashioned phone, connected to an 20th century landline, registered in the phone-book and it's number for anybody to be found who still knows how to use it. When we're not “in”, you'll have to try to connect again later. We are not very important persons, so there isn't a secretary taking messages or a computer voice to inform you on our whereabouts. Sometimes we'll have our, 10 Euro, pre-paid, camera-less, wifi-less, mobile phone with us for emergencies when being on the road. There's no point in using it at home for all obvious reasons. The fact that there's a whole world of communications out there in an other dimension, far away hidden in the megabits of possibilities only accessible by applications on privacy ripping devices, gives you a sense of freedom.  A forced, but gladly excepted, freedom not being able to use them as well as a kind of guilty feeling for not being a part of the modern 24 hour, minute to minute, religion of communications that most seemed to have embraced and some preach as a not to deny and disown achievement of evolution.

It all seems to be about time consuming “app's”, implacable reaction testing ways of communication, where you will be judged on immediate sympathy and enthusiasm with which you are responding. It could take days to receive a letter, for some even an insurmountable waste of time and mental gymnastics to write some well thought out words on a piece of paper. No, it doesn't mean we're living without the opportunities of modern life, e-mail replaced letters, envelopes and post stamps, some social media and services as Skype replaced expensive long-distance phone calls, YouTube and Vimeo gave us a way to share our creativity with the world and a IP-address changing “app” even let's us watch TV from all over the world. It's not that we're not informed, it just takes more than a few seconds. Sure, we won't see our friends messages and pictures about the newly bought bra, the under cooked egg splashing on the floor during their breakfast or the awesome haircut they shared on Instagram, unless they clicked on that button; “We'll share your message with all other social media and meanwhile steel all personal information from your smartphone”. Think about what you have in there: email addresses and phone numbers from your contacts; calendar appointments; personal photos; and, of greatest concern, personal financial information saved on your bank account app and shopping apps. On top of that, the smartphone can continually track your location to build a detailed profile of your recent and current whereabouts. Without your knowledge, the developers of these apps, your wireless provider and your handset manufacturer can sell this information to other firms, like advertisers, insurers or even places you’re applying for a job. The only non aggressive “app's” out there seem to be the Association of Professional Piercers, the Associação de Professores de Português, Art in Public Places, Air Parcel Post, Anti-Poverty Program and in our case the one most listened to; the Alan Parson's Project.

Now I don't expect that somebody on the other side of the valley repeats my morse-code djembe drumming, so it will echo into the rest of the world. It's great to have the possibilities of sharing your happiness, concerns and, hell yes, even sell your products by the means of Facebook groups, commercial sites, YouTube and these magnificent opportunities that are out there on the world wide web. It can't however replace that firm handshake on selling your handcrafted product, or these three, left, right, left, Dutch kisses on the cheek when meeting up, or that provocative wink during a to close encounter or the comforting embrace during tough times.

There's no need for admonishing people for thinking large while living small, it's those big dreams that make little progress happen. However, there's nothing wrong to let time just pass you by standing on the sidelines of the technical ingenuity and live the simple life with all it's natural beauty. It's is not a requirement or condition of a close friendship to copy the drum roll that sounds from the other side of the valley and continue to guide the rhythm on to the rest of the world. All that is expected of you as a good friend is that you are there to help repair the skin of the drum as it breaks down.  There's no “app” for that.