Zen and the art of iPod Maintenance
Back in 2004, my mother bought me and my brother iPods Mini. Personal audio had always been kind of a thing for me: I went through Walkmans, Discmans, MP3 Discmans, Minidisc and even, for a while, a 64 megabyte Creative MuVo. Pick an album for the day, load it on the MuVo and have it on repeat. Finally getting an iPod was a game-changer.
Like so many of us, I got an iPhone and put the iPod in its sock one last time and closed the junk drawer. Almost seventeen years later, the battery won’t hold a charge and its six gigabytes of storage don’t feel as impressive anymore.
Despite that, I’ve recently felt drawn to it more and more. Sure, in part because I’m rapidly approaching 40 and desperately clinging to things from my youth but there’s more to it. A lot more.
I’m trying not to be insufferable about it but I’ve been pursuing mindfulness over the past couple of months. Doing a course, meditating, everything. Most people who’ve done this seem unable to shut up about it, and I’m no exception. It’s taught me a lot about myself and about the human mind but I’m not going to bore you with that.
