Thoughts Approaching Sixty

Definition of ANACHRONISM

1: an error in chronology; especially: a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other

2:  a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially: one from a former age that is incongruous in the present

3: the state or condition of being chronologically out of place

4:  noun - see, Frank A. Villari

 

I’m a bit more than two months away from becoming an old anachronism.  I am an error in chronology, out of place, from a former age that is incongruous with the present.  I am a closet Luddite, brought kicking and screaming into any new technology.  It was bad enough when I was young, but at 60 I have thrown up my hands in resignation that I will always shy away from technology.  I use it as a means to an end, not an end to a means. 

And, I tend to ramble.  I am going to do that now.  It might offend some, so I offer an apology up front.  As usual, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.  After all…I’m getting old, right?

I use cell phones because they are needed for my job.  I did fine without one in Mexico and  I do fine without one, after work, here.  It only bothers those that can’t reach me.  Sometimes I don’t want to be reached.  I use a car because I have to, for work.  I would be just as happy walking or using a bike.  And, I use a computer, as a means to reach out, as a medium to communicate to a mass audience.  When I’m done, I turn it off.

I see kids blowing money they don’t have on cars that don’t look like cars, when they finish butchering them.  I see kids and adults with blue tooth devices welded onto their heads, talking to themselves, and laughing like idiots in a quiet crowd (like everyone really wants to hear their conversation).  I see adults dressed like teenagers with their pants down around their knees like so many other white, preppy, gangstas that need to pull their pants up so they can actually outrun the cop, or look their age.  Don’t bother grabbing your junk and giving me "the look."  You have to have something down there to grab in order to make it look believable.  

Chests puffed up and bared to show off tattoos that will soon melt into unrecognizable, colorful, crap as the owner approaches 80 and develops man breasts that sag to their knees like the ones on their overweight wife.  I can see them standing in front of a mirror wishing they could remember what the hell it was, the shapeless tattoo that is, and maybe the wife.  Everyone else wanders around with ear buds shoved into the sides of their heads so they don’t have to worry about interpersonal communication.  

States are legalizing marijuana.  Now everyone can, legally, remain stoned and zoned out, oblivious to the world around them.  Maybe that is for the best.  They are caught up in the zombie wave, not realizing that they are the walking dead.

Others are begging for money they haven’t earned, on a street corner, with a sign stating how hungry they are as they smoke through a pack of cigarettes and pet the big crap machine of a dog at their feet.  I would tell them to stop smoking and eat the dog, but they aren’t anymore hungry than they are willing to work, and the dog probably eats better than I do.

People have more piercings than common sense.  Human pin cushions striving to be something different and failing miserably, failing to realize they are just like everyone they hang with.  They march for a political system that they don’t have the time, or desire, to understand, and then bitch like spoiled brats when everything falls apart.  The flag so many have died for is just a piece of cloth.  God?  God is just a prefix for damn, and most Christians would say, He is as dead to these people as they are to Him.

This is modern society.  This is what progress has brought us to, and I am an anachronism. 

At 60 I have taken up jogging again.  When I jog I don’t fill my ears with music.  I listen to the world around me, my breathing, and my heartbeat.  I have brought my weight down to 175, from a high of 208.  I eat better food and less junk.  I work because I want to, and because I have to.  I firmly believe if I didn’t keep busy I would surely die from boredom. 

Yet, I am an anachronism.

One of these days someone is going to crash the system, the grid.  Power will fail and batteries will run out long before the power is restored.  I will put my pack together and hike to a hillside high enough that I can watch the city below.  The sound of cars will soon die out and it will be easier to hear the screams and the crying, the terror of a people lost without their technology.  The wailing will die out, not long after that, as they fail to come to grips with their situation and have a psychotic break. They will have become they’re fondest dream, as they wander listlessly through the streets like true zombies.  But, unlike the movies, they will become the prey for all the sick predators still able to make a bad situation worse.

One dark, possible, future with a silver lining.

I will no longer be an anachronism.  I was born for this scenario.

Do you ever think about the future?  Do you ever put down the technology?  Or, do you go camping and wonder why your cell phone doesn’t work, only to plan the next trip closer to a tower or a site offering Wi-Fi?

I don’t think we were intended to be mindless zombies, cookie cutter versions of the worst of us.  I think we were intended to be loving, caring, individuals, communicating with each other.  Technology isn’t communicating.  I am not communicating with you now.  I am sending a message and hoping you understand it, that it doesn’t get lost in translation between my fingers and your mind.  Communication requires attentive hearing, listening, and watching.  Those without sight magnify the hearing and listening by learning to be more attentive to those around them.

After 60 years I have learned only a few truths in my life.  One is that most everything else is just crap.  Love is paramount, forgiveness is sublime, human communication and interaction is a necessity, and children are a gift from God.  A little money is a good thing, more can be better if tempered with common sense and not greed.  There is nothing better for a private moment than a glass of good bourbon, a candle, a tub full of hot water and a woman singing the jazz with a big band.  And, being like everyone else is boring.

And you should have a good, personal, relationship with God.  Don’t be afraid to speak up, don’t be afraid at all.  God already knows.  Don’t fear God, and don’t fear life.  To fear life is to fear death.  Both are inevitable.  You are, and you will be.  Everything else is in your hands.  God put it there for you.

Be polite, take the megawatt bass speakers out of your ears once in a while and say, thank you.  You won’t be able to hear the response, but that ringing will pass with time.