I did a shopping errand this afternoon, and it got me to thinking. In the olden days I would have gone after quite a different-looking shopping list. For my projects and interests, I might have gotten things such as those pictured above: a journal, perfume, a cross-stitch kit, a rotary knife for quilting, and a card to send someone.
So much has changed. Today's shopping list consisted of two things: foundation for my face, and a headset with a microphone to go with my laptop. I looked at the pile and realized that there was nothing there which I would have, in the past, considered "fun" or something to feed the soul. And I looked at the latter and realized it was something I would never before have thought to buy. Irrelevant and too tecchie for anything I needed to do.
I don't write by hand in a journal anymore; my journal is a collection of bytes comprising virtual paper stored on my laptop. Greetings for birthdays are either posted on someone's Facebook wall or sent via e-mail. The last time I cross-stitched a bookmark for a friend was five years ago, during a trip to Europe. I don't wear much perfume to work anymore, because some people are allergic to it and I spend so much time with committees in closed rooms. And quilting? It has to be a summer project, if it will happen at all.
So much has changed. Instead of writing articles for publications in magazines that will come out in three months or more, I now publish instantly by blogging and hitting the "publish post" button. And if I'm really, really lucky, a bunch of you will comment within the next 24 hours, making me feel my ideas have been heard, appreciated and have become part of a circle of communication out there. No more waiting for the letters to the editor a few months after my article has come out in that previously-mentioned magazine.
So much has changed. Last night I rented and watched a video, but it was not on VHS or even via a DVD. Nor did I drive the couple of miles up the road to the rental store. I downloaded it to my laptop from iTunes, leaving the TV screen free for Stepson who was watching something else with the wireless headphones on. And that is just the latest mind-blowing change from how my life used to be.
So much has changed. Dictionaries are online, I've navigated my way out of Seattle using the maps in my telephone, and music is playing from my computer. I can make video phone calls by Skype from China to Husband, who teaches his graduate Principalship class face-to-face for five days before taking it online for the rest of the summer. I've begun learning Mandarin Chinese from Rosetta Stone rather than a teacher in a classroom, and it was that task which necessitated the purchase of the headset this afternoon. Husband's flight alerts have been coming over e-mail today, so I know he'll be home on time from his California trip. My latest shopping trip didn't require me to drive the 45 minutes to the nearest shopping center; I ordered clothes online and received the packages on my doorstep. It is cheap to send back the ones I don't like. I text my administrative assistant from my phone when I'm running late to an appointment. And my colleague across campus instant messages me with a quick question rather than picking up the phone.
I imagine some things won't ever change in my lifetime, like preferring to read a book with paper pages that can be turned physically, and going to the grocery store to select the produce I like. But so much has changed over even the last ten years. It makes me wonder how it will change again in the next ten. Because surely it will ... change.
We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing. --R.D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist
My shopping list used to be painting supplies, now I'm restarting that kind of shopping list. And I call myself obsolete now, for the work I was doing in my BC days (Before Children) was DOS and C and Pascal, and Microsoft Windows was only in beta test mode. And I'm marathoning now, instead of only playing tennis. And my kids have changed, from babies to adults, but I haven't paid attention to that many years of change in me.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for heaven, for we will change (and still be the same) and not have to worry about aging in the process. :)
I was stunned when my daughter looked at her Blackberry to see where her husband was based on GPS and his Blackberry.
ReplyDeleteI see many of the same changes in my life and work. Though I do still knit! However, I text to my students and staff more than ever! It’s almost a surprise when I hear from one of them on the phone! Imagine, a real voice conversation!
ReplyDeleteI recently emailed someone and commented that it almost seemed old fashion to email these days. :)
ReplyDeleteThe first 30 years of my life followed a predictable pattern except perhaps for the introduction of the microwave oven. The changes in the first 30 years of the the lives of my children will be phenomenal.
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