Ode to Techology

During this weird time of "shelter at home," I've repeatedly praised the Gods of Technology for all electronic communication modes, great and small. Staying at home is pretty easy, considering how we can stay in touch with each other. Just having Zoom as a communication option makes staying in touch that much easier--it's like a party line, only with visuals.

These days, we can watch movies and shows of choice, at any time of the day or night. We can lose ourselves in social media or drown ourselves in information around the clock. Our phones have become a tool for everything: alarm, watch, calculator, flashlight, recorder, games, banking, messaging, camera, access to all things social media, contacts, emergency weather alarm, shopping, coupon clipping... I'm not sure anyone makes calls from their cell phone but they could if needed.

If you are my age and/or you have a small pox vaccine scar on your arm: please come down memory land. It's amazing we can stay connected in all sorts of ways despite being sheltered at home.
If you are younger than me but recall some of this stuff and aren't sure if you have a small pox vaccine scar on your arm: respect your elders and appreciate technology at your fingertips. Don't worry about that small pox scar on my shoulder.
If you are young enough to be my child: have a good laugh and roll your eyes and don't you dare complain you're bored. Listen, I'll make you look at my small pox vaccine scar if you're not careful.

An Ode to Technology
of which keeps us in touch, in tune...
of which keeps us from isolating as we isolate. 

I sing the song of my people, those from the land of manual typewriters... of rotary phones and pay phones... of actually knowing people's phone numbers and not having to dial area-codes... of long distance charges, long distance phone cards and of many a call placed after 9 PM because it was cheaper... of not having caller ID.

Search engines were card catalogs, found at the library, much praise to Dewey Decimal. Copiers were mimeographs, warm from the machine. Calculators were paper and pencil... printers were... well, not.

Film strips ruled the day. Ding! A laptop? Is that like a TV tray

I tell the tale of life before the Internet... before pagers or wireless landlines. I share the pain of phone privacy being only as long as the phone cord would stretch--and, that was NEVER far enough. Worse, your sibling was probably listening on the other phone.

My people and I come from a land before cable TV... before VCRs... before remote control...
before movie streaming... before 'round the clock programming... before CD players... before cassette tapes... before microwaves... before shoulder straps on the front seat seat belt... before seat belts in the back seat.

How the hell did I live without a microwave?

I embrace the tinfoil-laced rabbit ears on top of the television and a trip to the Drive-In Movie Theater. Nights spent at Blockbuster, looking for a movie to rent, only to find there were no copies left. Large-size floppy discs, dial-up Internet connection and dot matrix printers were leading edge technology... did I mention wind-up alarm clocks?

Here we now are, technology! Able to talk to each other--SEE each other--without having to move from the kitchen, without having to change out of our pajama bottoms, while seated on the toilet.

Here we now are: taking 100 of photos of our dogs per day. Here we are posting at least one of these 100 photos to social media per day.

Here we now are: chatting, texting, zooming, face-timing. Hopefully not while driving.

Here we now are: streaming, recording, interacting. We enjoy our 24-hour programming, digital music, shopping at our fingertips and googling all that needs to be googled. We google what we need to google.

An Ode to Technology
of which keeps us in touch, in tune...
of which keeps us from isolating as we isolate. 

I'll zoom you for Easter.
I'll text the meme.
I'll post the photo of the dogs.
I'll friend you on that site.
I'll take that class on line.
I'll stay home and embrace all forms of technology... I'll stay home and save some lives.

Thank you, gods of technology for making this a much easier time than it could have been. A Happy Zooming of Easter to all.
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For the record: Jesus is okay with you staying home on Easter Sunday. He's all good with streaming church services.