7 21 03

Sometimes
I wonder how celebrities from the past would have fared in our
modern hurry, hurry world. For example, Henry David Thoreau,
famous for his writings …”On Walden’s Pond”. I have to admit
I’ve never actually sat down and read this famous piece of
American literature. I’m certain it’s here at my house
somewhere, but like many other things, it has just been pushed
to the side until I get more time. This is not going to happen
anytime soon, I’m afraid.

As I understand
it Mr. Thoreau was somewhat of a simple person who had moved to
this remote cabin in the woods outside of Concord, Mass. He
communed with nature and espoused the simple joys of life as he
saw them from his point of view. Since I haven’t read his works,
I cannot tell you whether he was happy, contented or not. I just
don’t know. I do know he stayed for about two years and then
hung it up for a more civilized lifestyle. What constituted a
‘civilized’ lifestyle in Thoreau’s time, I don’t know. Perhaps
having more than one fork was a big deal to him. What I do know
is that Mr. Thoreau lived in a simpler time than any of us do
today in spite of our tremendous strides in the creation of so
called ‘labor saving’ devices.

For instance,
when I was growing up, you only had to remember your home phone
number which started with two letters such as JA for the Jackson
exchange or MO for the Mohawk exchange. Then you had five
numbers after the letters and that’s it, that’s all there was to
it. No area codes to memorize, nothing just two letters and five
numbers. If you wanted to call your Aunt in Chicago, you called
the operator and told her who you wanted to speak to and she
would place the call for you and then most likely call you back
once she got your Aunt on the phone. These ‘operators’ were real
live, air breathing humans who were employed with the phone
company to ‘assist’ you with making a long distance telephone
call. Imagine that, someone trying to actually help you do
something. Completely different from today isn’t it?

Today, we have
cell phones, home phones, work phones and each have their own
quirks and personalities which no one can understand and there
is no one alive who can help us. For instance, all of my phones
have voice mail. None of my phones use the same numbers to
listen to the messages, save the messages or delete the
messages. So, if I’m in my car, I have to remember that pressing
seven deletes the message, while pressing three starts it all
over again. In my office, if I press two, the message is
deleted, but pressing two saves it on my home phone. What this
causes to happen is very often telephone chaos as I delete on
one phone what I want to save and save on another what I want to
delete. To add insult to injury I often forget where I’ve saved
a message and spend too much time dialing and listening to all
three before I get what I’m looking for. So much for saving some
labor.

When I was a
kid only the very rich had a mobile telephone. It was a big deal
to see some guy in his Cadillac talking to someone while driving
down the freeway. Today, not only does it seem as if everyone
has one, but I’m starting to see people carrying two along with
one or more pagers. They’re beginning to wear these belts with
little holsters sprouting antennas which makes the person look
like some type of swat team member. Even the homeless folks
along side the intersections make you wait to drop your coins in
their bucket until they get through making a call. I always
wonder who they are talking to (their brokers?) and where do
they plug them in for a charge at night?

Go into any
restaurant and I’ll bet you before you meal is over, someone’s
phone will ring in their pocket or purse and twenty five other
people will check to see if it was theirs calling.  

No, life is far
from simple. It’s become more complicated and more complex as we
have moved through the past century.

What would
Thoreau have done? Would he have lived out his life at that
remote pond of his or would he have given in and joined the rest
of us as we struggle with the latest communications gadgets?