Behind the eight-ball!

When it comes to today's technological advances, I've always been behind the eight-ball! When most people had touch-tone phones, I was still using a rotary-dial phone. When they were using voice mail, I had my answering machine. And when most of my friends had smart phones, I still relied on my land line.

This lagging behind the times, also includes music. While most of my acquaintances were amassing CDs, I was still playing cassette tapes and records. Now that almost everyone I know is streaming music on-line, I'm still collecting CDs. Once I joked with a friend that I've acquired a stereo that includes a turntable, cassette tape deck, and CD player which are all state-of-the-art for 1990.

This being behind the eight-ball, goes for movies too. While everyone I know is streaming current films like Everything, Everywhere, All At Once and All Quiet on the Western Front on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, I'm still watching old classics like Shane, The Sound of Music, and Blackboard Jungle, which I get on DVDs from the public library.

Thank God, I have friends who can help me when my TV, stereo, or DVD player goes on the blink. I can recall, for example, how I hung on to my heavy, clunky old TV set when most everyone I knew already had light-weight flat-screen TVs. Yes, I've become resigned to the fact that I'll always lag behind technologically speaking. It doesn't even bother me anymore because I can console myself with the fact that by the time AI takes over, I won't be around anymore. So, I'm not going to worry about self-driving cars on the roads or microchips in my brain.

I feel a lot like old Rip Van Winkle who woke up from a thirty-year-old slumber to find a world that had changed beyond recognition. The only difference between him and me is that I don't have to sleep for thirty years. My world is changing so fast that it takes my breath away! I only have to blink, and there's something new happening. I won't waste my time by making value judgments about whether this rapid change of pace is good or bad. It is what it is. I know I can't stop progress. As the ancient Greeks said way before my time: "Panta rei, or Everything changes."