Technology: The god of this Age
After our Honeymoon in June, 1990, I moved into Marianne's home, apartment B, at 2460 Highland Rd in Dallas. Maybe it wasn't an apartment. Perhaps it was a modified shoebox. It certainly wasn't any larger than that!
The only problem was fitting our furniture into the apartment. In particular, I remember that Marianne struggled to place the furniture because, on one wall, there was a built-in telephone shelf. Classy, huh?
If you've never seen a telephone shelf, it's an indentation in a wall, and ours had a double shelf built into the indentation, with half of the shelf protruding in a cantilever-type fashion. The lower shelf was large enough to fit a telephone book perfectly. The shelf just above it was for the telephone and, in the back of that top shelf, was the telephone line jack, to plug in the phone.
What to do? Marianne didn't know whether to put a chair in front of it, in which case, how would we reach the phone? Or she could cover it up, but then we couldn't plug the phone in, much less reach it. Eventually, Marianne found an interior designer who helped her (for free, I might add) to arrange our furniture. Presto! Problem solved.
That was the last time we ever dealt with the "problem" of a telephone stand. They are not a common feature anymore. Nowadays, people want garden tubs and walk-in showers, or granite countertops in the kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, or homes that are hard-wired for surround sound or, better yet, wireless altogether for their computers, alarm system, and integrated "lifestyle" electronic systems. Whew! Times change!
The irony of all these improvements is this: we have fancy bathtubs that we don't use and showers that we hastily enter and exit in a rush to get to work. We have bigger and better kitchens so that we can eat out. We buy the latest and greatest technology only to find that it ends up controlling us, and consuming our time, rather than helping us to manage our lifestyle and improve it.
Ask yourself this -- just because something is possible, does it mean that I need it? If we can genetically alter something, do we need to? If we can control something electronically, is it necessary to do so? Do I really need to alter my life today for something that will not last through the next fad? What is truly important? What is worth pursuing? What is not?
I think Louis Jenkins was on to something in the poem, Telephone, which I read in the Writer's Almanac. I want to share it with you...
In the old days telephones were made of
rhinoceros tusk and were big and heavy enough
to be used to fight off an intruder. The telephone
had a special place in the front hallway, a shrine
built into the wall, a niche previously occupied
by the blessed virgin, and when the phone
rang it was serious business. "Hello." "One if
by land and two if by sea." "What?" "Unto you
a child is born." "What?" "What did he say?"
"Something about the Chalmers' barn." The
voice was carried by a single strand of bare wire
running from coast to coast, wrapped around a
Coke bottle stuck on a tree branch, dipping low
over the swamp, it was the party line, all your
neighbors in a row, out one ear and in another.
"We have a bad connection, I'm having trouble
understanding you."
Nowadays telephones are made of recycled
plastic bags and have multiplied to the point
where they have become a major nuisance.
The point might ring at you from anywhere, the
car, the bathroom, under the couch cushions...
Everyone hates the telephone. No one uses the
telephone anymore so telephones, out of habit
or boredom or loneliness perhaps, call one
another. "Please leave a message at the tone."
"I'm sorry, this is a courtesy call. We'll call back at
a more convenient time. There is no message.