We’ve lost it.
I'm not sure we really wanted to.
We’ve lost a lot, that’s for sure, in the name of progress. I sense it’s starting to hit us, how much we’ve given up in the quest for instant everything.
I’m allowing myself a moment to grieve the death of charmed mystery. Here’s what I’ve known and lost. Here’s what my grandkids, the littles at least, won’t know:
- The anticipation and mystery of childbirth: No one knew what they were going to get. Our nurseries were decorated in yellow and white. Baby showers included games about guessing the gender and birthdate. Delivering a baby was like Christmas morning on steroids.
- The ringing of the telephone: not knowing who was calling and having to get up to answer it. There was mystery behind all of it: who were they calling for, would you have to accept of decline long distance charges, how long you were allowed to talk to your boyfriend or girlfriend and keep the only phone line tied up? And you had to actually talk, using vocal cords, to share information. There was no such thing as ghosting someone. You either answered the phone or you didn’t, and unless you hung up on the caller, you answered questions in real time
- The oven that had to pre-heat while you made dinner: there was no such thing as an Insta-pot. In fact there was no insta-anything. The coffee percolated in the kitchen, the aroma and the sound creating a rhythm section to the morning. There were no microwaves. We delayed getting a microwave at our house for a few years until they were tested enough to believe the waves would not harm humans. It was major progress when TV dinners were created and people could put store bought pre-prepared meals all at the same time in the oven, plop down in front of the TV and watch Lawrence Welk. People forgot that you could mix a cake with flour and sugar, butter and eggs rather than dumping a box of mix in a bowl and beating it up. Everything has become so instant!
- And speaking of TV, we don’t even have to use a TV Guide anymore. We can watch what we want when we want and never have to leave our chair to even turn the TV on and off. And there is no longer that final minute when all TV stations played the national anthem before they signed off for the night. There was no such thing as a lighted screen to keep us up all night.
- Getting dressed and going out: We used to go to the bank to deposit money, and hand checks and cash to humans, and get a current statement. We used to have to get dressed and put on our shoes and go outside to either walk of drive to the bank, or the store, or the doctor even. Now we bank from our phones. We don't even need to go to the grocery store. Instead we click little boxes and someone delivers whatever we want to our door. We speak our woes to doctors from our couches and Zoom, they prescribe the remedy.
- The doorbell ringing was exciting. No one knew, until you answered it, who was there. This was in the era before the doorbell was most often the delivery person.
- We didn't have to show everyone where we were and what we were doing. We used to enjoy what we did, and then maybe took a picture of everyone afterwards if someone brought a camera. Film wasn't cheap, and developing it wasn't't either. So we picked and chose what it was we wanted to take a photo of. It was always a charmed mystery when you picked up your photo orders. Concerts were things we kept in our memories and not in Chatbooks. We felt what we felt all by ourselves, without thinking what everyone else might be thinking of it.
- Music wasn't free: If you wanted to hear a certain song, you had to invest in it and something to play it on, or call and request it from the deejay on the radio. Then there was the charm of picking your radio station to fit your style. It was always a good morning if the clock radio clicked on and Me and Mrs. Jones was playing. It would have lost its charm if we knew what song would wake us up in the morning.
Then, as if our need for instant everything wasn’t enough, our relatively recent worldwide pandemic sealed the deal on isolation for all of us. Really, no one had to go anywhere. And at a certain point we were not allowed to even if we wanted. Though the pandemic is over, businesses have closed offices and let employees work from home. We sit in our houses with fake cyber backgrounds and meet with each other waist up with no energy exchange but the buzz of electricity.
Pretty soon we will take the shape of our easy chairs and fix our eyes on our screens and the world could stop spinning and we might not know.
And we call it progress.
I am not passing judgement. I personally enjoy all these insta-everythings. I guess I sense a need to pause and analyze it for a minute. Maybe not jump into all the upgrades so quickly. Maybe I'm sending a message to myself.
I’m sorry, my little ones, to have robbed you of charmed mystery. All we have left you is the great unknown of mankind, and what that has given you and all of us, in return, is a massive dose of anxiety.
Please, don’t anyone start fooling with Easter Egg Hunts! We need something that requires a little mystery in our lives!
