Today we do not tolerate someone just disconnecting, even if it is a fictional character. A blank screen makes us anxious, unsettled, uncertain. Because of this uncertainty (and my impatience), I initially fail to understand you. To understand what you are inviting me to: to deal not only with the other person sitting across from me, but especially with myself, with my own body. When we say that we want to “seize the moment,” what we really mean is: we want to feel our bodies, something that, because of the infernal pace we impose on ourselves, we rarely get to anymore. Our obsession with clock time actually leads to a lack of body. What you hold for me is not time, but state. As conceptual as that sounds, the effect is physical. Radical, too: you simply make it impossible for me to continue ignoring my body by, for example, texting someone. Your strategy is simple but brilliant. You add nothing to my travel experience, you fill in nothing. You only give me something in return. The opportunity not to render. Seizing that opportunity is an act of defiance.

(fragment of a text by) Evelyne Coussens