Long radio silence, but my internet fast this year grew from the standard one month of mind-clearing to a vague and porous two. I stopped the Facebook and Twitter; I let emails languish in the inbox; I had brief fits of insomnia-driven responding, followed by weeks of gorgeous calm. The more technology presses in, the more this has come to seem necessary. A beloved and very smart member of my family is so ridiculously connected with his tchotchkes that he has trained his brain to be hyperactive as a puppy on chocolate, with the result that he is unable to actually read a book anymore. This sou