#395

Michael is my height now. That's an old photo below. He shaves. He'll drive soon. WTF dude. I remember your birth. I remember setting you on the scale in the nursery at the hospital. You were fifteen minutes old. I was crying and crying. You were not. You were dazed, puffy-faced, slowly exercising your fingers and eyes. That was yesterday, fucking yesterday. Time flies but I am so grateful.

Recently, Michael said, "I have to do my homework on paper tonight, I left my iPad in the orchestra room." That sounded strange to me; I wondered, What strange things will Michael hear from his kids someday? Stuff like: "We had a driver on the bus this morning," or "Can I get a data implant?" or "Why can't I have unlimited 7G?" or "I'm the only one who hasn't orbited," or "Marcela took an air-taxi to school today." Then Michael will reply to his son, "Marcela? Oh. Is she a girl you like?" That won't change. But college kids on space stations, drone deliveries from Amazon, humans on Mars? Yes. Technology begets technology; barring an apocalypse, I only see it marching on.

Michael's 'paper homework' made me consider how paper was, at some point, the new technology. Then copy machines, worksheets, workbooks. Now iPads. My grandmother taught in a one-room country schoolhouse. They had a chalkboard. No handouts, no overheads, no projectors and reels of film. I saw the birth of VHS tapes and audio cassettes. TVs and VCRs appeared in classrooms. Calculators. I had a Trapper Keeper. There was life before email, cell phones, the internet, Google, remote controls, social media. I used an Apple IIe. For a time, my parents shopped and banked without credit cards, cash machines, Pay Pal. They used traveler's checks during our awesome faraway driving vacations. Things change. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." Ferris said that in 1986. I was in junior high. I believed him but now I don't believe, I know. Four decades of experiences, of life, moving fast.

To be clear, technology isn't always progress. Consider coffee ala Keurig, for example: convenient, but shit compared to a pourover. Or a proper espresso. The espresso machine and method utilizing steam, by the way, was invented in 1884.

My DNA results came back. I am mostly Scandinavian and Irish, as expected. My grandpa was called 'Swede' by everyone who knew him; that was one clue. I hoped for a sliver of Native American, through a mysterious great-grandmother, but I am not, apparently, unless only a few percent, which appears to be the granularity. The good news is we can admire whoever we want, and I admire bits of every culture; all have unique traditions, people, history, geography, and wisdom. Amen.