Journal: 2/3/06

I’ve been continuing to enjoy my new iPod. For one thing, it’s caused a complete rebirth of my appreciation of classical music. I’ve loaded all of my 500+ classical CDs into the iPod, and now I’m gradually listening again, one by one, to those perfectly lovely and celebrated pieces. The music of Beethoven and Mahler sounds delightfully clear and beautiful through the little white earphones as I sit in my apartment or stroll along the walkway in the park. I’ve also been enjoying a few audiobooks. An especially good one is a tape of a retreat given by Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual teacher whom I’ve been reading lately. He has a soft, inspiring voice which comes through the iPod beautifully. I have listened to it frequently during the day at school – a few minutes here and there just to get a an uplifting thought or two to help me be a better teacher. The iPod does bring with it, however, a potential problem – out-of-control spending. It’s so easy to click a button and order a book or a song: bingo!-- and instantly it’s downloaded to the iPod. I guess I should look upon it, though, not as a problem, but as an opportunity to practice some further self-discipline. Who knows – perhaps my spiritual audiobooks on the iPod will help me gain that discipline.