"The cost of a thing is the amount of life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." - Henry David Thoreau
Lori McKenna is a brilliant songwriter and artist and although I don't know her, I've been a big fan of hers and her song "The Time I've Wasted' for a long time. I've probably listened to it at least a hundred times in the last ten years since the album it was on came out.
I would imagine the song was written about the time Lori or one of her co-writers wasted on a relationship that didn't work out, and the regret she has for all the time given to it someone that you can never get back... and as much as I loved the song and what it has to say.... recently, the lyrics and the story that it tells has touched me differently than it ever has before.
Like a lot of people, I have a complicated 'like, dis-like' relationship with a lot of the new technology that has come into all of our lives in the last decade or two. And how, as helpful as it is and can be to have all this power at our fingertips, it's also a tremendous distraction and disrupter of many of the most important things in our lives, including time with the people we love most, and also with God and with ourselves.
And so it was on my heart to see if I could meld together some of what I feel with the wonderful words that Lori wrote and sings. The result is this video. None of the clips below are mine, they are just things I found and pieced together, and laid onto of this beautiful, truly important song. One person's creativity, mixed with another person's creativity (who have never even met), often can create something neither one of them might have make on their own.
I hope Mrs. McKenna doesn't mind me using a song that was in her heart, to share what's in mine...
My hope is that this video version of Lori's song might be a reminder that the cost of our iPhones and devices are often much more than just the price Apple charged our credit cards. And perhaps at least for our families sake, less is more, when it comes to using technology.
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* song recorded by: Lori McKenna
* song written by: Liz Rose / Lori Mckenna / Jesse Walker
** video by: Rory Feek
* video elements: Envato.com
