Between Our Steps: A Phone-Free Market Day in a World That Never Pauses

When a local vendor forgets their phone on a tense news day, a routine Saturday at the Owen Sound Farmers Market becomes a quiet lesson in disconnection, presence, and what can truly wait.

Photo by Winifred Helton-Harmon on Unsplash

COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION

These days, I only listen to the radio in the car. I am enjoying the silence at home, and catching up on what’s happening in the world while driving into town.

Heading in for the Farmers Market on a Saturday, I caught CBC’s World Report. Shock hit. Israel and Iran were firing missiles at each other.

I had known that tensions were high ahead of a Sunday meeting about Iran’s nuclear program, but reports had suggested that violence could erupt if that meeting did not go well. Instead, Israel pre-empted the situation with targeted attacks. All morning, I wondered if the situation had escalated.

That particular Saturday, I would not catch up on the state of the conflict until my drive home after the market. I could not check the news because I had forgotten my phone at home.

On the one day I could have used a news update, it was out of reach.

Another vendor said it was good practice to disconnect from time to time. I have heard this advice, but I tend not to worry too much about my cell usage because I’m not scrolling all day.

And because I don’t check it every fifteen minutes, I didn’t think it would be too hard to be in the present, in the place that I was, not off in some virtual space… except for my worry that World War III could be starting.

I put that aside, figuring someone else would be on their phone and let us all know if things got too bad. I decided to enjoy being disconnected.

However, I had planned to double-check a recipe for the next week; a new thing I was trying out for family. No way to look it up. The research would have to wait until I got home.

A woman wanted to buy a book with e-transfer. I was unable to check for the confirmation email. Had to trust her. She did flash the confirmation page at me, so I figured it was fine. (Actually, I’m pretty trusting about e-transfers. Some people only do them from their computers. I let them take the book and do the transfer when they get home. That works out… mostly.)

The market started slowly that day. My neighbour spent quite a while scrolling through emails or some social media. I wondered what she was finding, then told myself I was disconnecting and did not want to know.

I watched the people who passed by, and let my thoughts wander instead of my fingers. Even so, a question popped into my mind that I really wanted to look up the answer to. But I told myself that it would wait.

By the time I got home, I couldn’t remember what I had wanted to check. I guess it wasn’t that important.

Maybe many of the things that I immediately pull out my phone to look up don’t actually warrant the attention I give them. Normally, if I am seriously looking for information, I sit down at the computer. With the larger format, I find it easier to look for sites I trust.

It’s easier to skip the AI-generated answer and find good explanations, too. (For example, with the novel I am working on, I wanted to know what horn-like instruments the Ancient Greeks had. AI informed me that the Greeks were human, like us, and did not have horns on their heads. Definitely a skip-worthy answer.)

That Saturday morning went quite quickly. I wrote the first draft of this column by hand. I missed a phone call and a few messages, but answered them when I got home.

There was nothing that could not wait. I wonder if I should take a phone time-out more often.

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