Like Mr. Thoreau, I came here to get away, to live at the edge of nothing and think things through. Life had become too complicated, and I needed to remove the umbilicals and get back to living an analog life for a while.

Everyone thought I was crazy, unplugging and moving to a country where I don’t speak the language (yes, still), and I’m not taking any form of technology more advanced than my mom’s old IBM Selectric (that’s a typewriter).

Maybe I am crazy, but as I sit here in my cottage next to the window looking at the sea, I can’t help but feel I made the right decision. I’ve found an attention span I thought had died long ago. I can now pay attention to something for fifteen minutes at a time without looking for some diversion that’s come in over the tubes.

Maybe I’ll come back to the always on, never quiet life of perpetual connection; there’s a chance I won’t. Either way, this feels like a new life, led deliberately, to live a life in more than 30 second interruptions and diversions.