Today I was dropping off some brochures to the library and passed a elder man who was leaving as I was approaching. We said hello to each other. I thought to myself, 'I don't do that enough'. I quickly did what I came to do, went back to my car and noticed the elder man was getting into his car parked next to mine. This is of not great import other than my reflecting on my choice to park in this particular spot which was narrow and I thought I wouldn't be long so it would be alright. So I thought I'd give the man a few seconds to reverse out of his spot and get out of the parking lot. I moved some things around in my car from passenger seat to trunk; took a minute. The elder man started to put his car in reverse but was having slight trouble backing out for it was fairly tightly packed lot. I decide to make a move for my front door, put on my seat belt, looked at him forwarding back into his parking spot, apparently straightening out his car? I went ahead and hastily backed out my car, (nearly rear ending the parked mini van behind me); mumbling holy expletives, I decidedly drove out of the parking lot. Realizing, after pulling up to the stop sign, that the man had still not pulled out of the parking lot. Had he been baffled by my car's sudden disappearance? Cursing me? Looking in my rear view I finally see the man leaving the lot. I drove away with reminiscence and empathic condolence.
The point of this is what it made me think of just then; the future. It's no surprise the pace of things in our society are continually getting more rapid; information processing comes to mind. I got to thinking about myself as a elder man and what the kids of the future will be like with me in their hastiness? Today we use cars to get around, what about in the future? Books...libraries...I thought a fitting arena for this to take place, won't they be relics in the future? The act of going to a place that holds objects of information, printed on paper, to check them out, then going back in allotted period of time to return it. Distant memories of days fading; forgotten? I had a fleeting vision of on-the-spot processing, thoughts instantly manifest. Needing a vehicle to get from place to place; not necessary. We just had everything at our disposal, close, available instantaneously.
I propose no declaration or stance about this; no, this is good or bad.
Objectivity aside, I'm excited about the future.
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