Friends,
For years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to give up the use of tantalum capacitors for Lent, and I know this is sort of weird—most people give up things like alcohol or chocolate—but there’s a reason for my desire to pursue this nerdly spiritual discipline. Tantalum capacitors are necessary components for the production of the small electronic devices all of us use every day, and tantalum is made from a substance called coltan, which, thanks to the world’s voracious appetite for cellphones and other smart devices, has become exceptionally valuable.
The value of coltan is problematic because one of the places where coltan is most abundant is in the Congo River Delta in Africa, a place where civil unrest, protracted warfare, and the breakdown of functioning government is made worse by the fact that various warring armies are funding their violence (and getting rich in the process) from the mining of coltan in the territories they control. Thus, the electronic devices I own are helping subsidize warfare, and that makes me profoundly uncomfortable.
But I’m not able to give up my use of electronic devices. I use a computer and sometimes an iPad to write. The phones at work are made with tantalum capacitors, and while at home I own a rotary phone, I no longer have a land line in which to plug in and for that reason my only telephone option is a cellphone made with tantalum capacitors. The only way for me to give up tantalum is to go dark and off the grid, which I’m not prepared to do.
So this year during Lent I’m not going to give up tantalum, but I will choose not to use tantalum at least symbolically. This Lent I’m going to try to send 40 postcards to friends and family members—that’s one postcard for each day of Lent. I have a small collection of unused antique postcards which I will put to use, and I hope this discipline will give me the opportunity to reconnect with folks with whom I haven’t talked in a while. We’ll see how it goes.
I appreciate your prayers as I take this symbolic stand against the violence generated by my consumption of tantalum capacitors, and if you happen to have any old and unused postcards sitting around I’m a few short of 40, and I’d be happy to take any donations.
God’s Peace,
Ben