Technology is stealing our lives and taking over! Remember Skynet? The company that was a net-conscious group-mind of artificial intelligence from the Terminator franchise? Well, turns out Skynet’s machines really are taming us. 

Ok, I’m a bit overly dramatic but I’m on a rant today, so look out. A few recent experiences have forced me to give technology a bit of a pie eye and I hope I can convince you to give it a more considered look, too.

First, did you catch the news about today’s children being unable to hold pencils? Yes, their hands do not easily conform to a pencil because 1. they spend too much time using their thunbs on their Gameboys/cellphones/netbooks etc. 2. they are no longer taught to write with pen or pencil, specifically cursive penmanship.

This news had my jaw hitting the table. First, with all the recent emphasis on calligraphy, I figured that writing was something our young folks cared about. Yes, this is true, if you are over the age of 17 or so. If you are in grade school, no. THE GOOD NEWS is that cursive writing is being taught again. It is a slow return but it IS a return. But seriously, can’t hold a pen or pencil?

Which brings me to my second item. Forks. I went to a restaurant recently and watched an entire family – nice looking, obviously doing well – shoveling their food with a spoon. Who eats steak with a spoon? Was it because they can’t properly HOLD A FORK? Maybe that’s related to the spoons. Whatever it was, it was beyond bizzare and I might have written it off until I saw it again with a couple of fifth and sixth graders who opted to eat with their fingers because the SPORK was too confusing and difficult to manage. Oh my Emily Post.

My third peeve with technology is how we are forgetting to think for ourselves. I have clocks in my home that require a person to be able to tell time. I don’t mean to have time TOLD to you. When a clock says 10:12 that is being told the time. I have clocks with dots for numbers and/or Roman numerals and I can not tell you how many 20, 30 and 40 something’s have looked at the clock and then asked me what time it was only to confess they can’t actually tell time. They’ve gotten used to being told what time it is. None of my watches will do for them nor my wall clock or grandfather clock. It is shameful to me that these adults need digital representations to give them information.

That’s like shoes. SHOES. I know too many people who need shoes that 1. have straps and Velcro or 2. need zippers  because they don’t know how to tie laces. CAN’T TIE THEIR SHOES. Yes’m I know about fashion and fads but a good pair of Keds or Sketchers never goes out of style! Good grief.

Can’t tie your shoes, or write your name, or tell time….let’s add to the list can’t do math without a calculator. I hate math. But even my nearly 64 years can add up three double digit numbers in my head or write them down on paper (oops, use of pencil), and then add the columns up (you know, carry the 1 and add that in…) to get a result. I love a good calculator when I need a whole line of numbers or adding up five digit long columns but that doesn’t mean I can’t do simple math in my head or multiply in my head without using formulas or fingers and toes. (Do you hear me signing?)

And what about using a dictionary or any reference book? I like Google as much as the next guy but half (or more) of what you read online isn’t fact checked and we all know Wikipedia is great but humans update it with what they think (and not necessarily what is truth). A good history book (old is better since it probably hasn’t been scrubbed and santifized), or even old encylopedias are very useful. That is if you can still recite your alphabet.

We live in a digtal, highly technological world that is being more dependent on cars that drive themselves (Can you park at all or will that go away too?). Do you read a recipe and cook any of your own food or is everything a drive thru or microwave quickie? 

I guess the straw that broke the camel’s back came when my I found out my friend’s second grade daughter couldn’t read yet. ANYTHING. Don’t you read at home, I asked with great surprise. Oh sure, I play them audiobooks all the time. There are great stories about history and even bedtime stories, she said without even feeling the sadness in her words.

I was stunned into complete silence. 

What are we teaching our kids and grandkids when they think pickles grow in jars and bologna is slang term? When cotton comes from a store and bananas grow in the ground and hydroponic is the only understanding of farming they know? When did we forget to teach children about real farming vs growing cabbages in a virtual world where trees suddenly pop up because you have points? What happens when you ask them to read something aloud and all they can do is stumble over words they are used to hearing vocalized, not by parents, but through earbuds, headphones and strange voices. Where letters and numbers are not necessary when the computer TELLS you what to choose from?

I like technology. Thanks to reseach and lab sciences we have breakthroughs in cancer, alzheimers, parkinsons, autism and so much more. Thanks to space travel we know more our about planet and we see what we can do to help fight against global warming (unless you think that is a fake news or a video game). Technology has made advances in safety, in space travel, in recycling, in clean air and water. Advancements have happened because of technology.

BUT! 

What happens when we skip the nuclear war and go right to EMPs and wipe out electronics? Can you start a fire? Or will you be like the fifth grader who didn’t know what a match looked like because Daddy used a click on lighter and a gas grill? He never saw charcoal in action much less ever learned how to start a fire unless he had gasoline and a blow torch. (Yes, that was hyperbole).

Seriously, we need to remember our basic skills and not lose them in the wake of technological advances. I can still make my own food from scratch, I know how to wind a watch and read a clock, I can write a letter (remember those?) and type with only using my thumbs for the space bar on the typewriter.

Technology is good. But not when it makes us stupid. Consider that when you ask your Alexa what time it is (yes i have Alexa too, and I like her!).

The answer is to remember to be smarter than the machines and don’t surrender to Skynet or the Matrix as the easy way out of life. We have tools we can use to fend for ourselves. Let’s remember to use what we have first and not forget the basics. Let technology tackle the truly technical stuff, the way we first envisioned it. Then no matter how fancy and techno awesome we make our lives, in the dark we can still find the lightswitch, change the channel, read a book by flashlight or make a hamburger without visual aids. We are thinking creatures.

If you doubt the reasoning just ask yourself what will you do if the next cyberattack takes down the internet or electricity? Won’t happen? It’s already happened. Twice.

We can still marvel at our advancing world, while continuing to think – and do – for ourselves. Self-reliance and independence is more than simply making enough money to pay the bills or buy an Alexa or a self-driving car. It’s managing to live in the light and the dark but by conscious choice.

Thanks for listening,
Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

(Ps. I borrowed Skynet from the movies – I did not think that up myself and no offense is intended)

The XXIII Winter Olympiad LIVE

16 days.  Sixteen days of competition with drama confined (mostly) to snow and ice. Where being frozen out wasn’t a political snub, where losing wasn’t shamed and lamented because a silver or bronze medal was still a monumental win. Where achievement thrived in finishing last as much as in besting the field.

16 days of glory. Of “I’ll get it next year.” Of saying and waving goodbye to aged and wounded favorites and hello to fresh, nubile Cinderella-esque players with unlimited potential for the future.

16 days. Triumph, loss, success, failure, regret, and surprise, all jumbled together with teamwork, determination, patriotism, and purpose.

16 days where, if only for a little while, and if only in theory, being united in purpose was true for a select group of hopeful adults, sharing a common purpose despite the sport.

For these sixteen days, I stopped writing and reading, I stopped watching regular TV, I didn’t go out to eat or to the movies. Instead, for 16 incredible days, I immersed myself in the LIVE events of the Olympic winter games. Wholehearted and enthusiastic.

I’m exhausted. And I feel ridiculous writing those words now. For 16 days I watched almost every live event, forgiving myself for neglecting my “normal” life in order to have the vicarious experiences of thrills and spills from athletes around the world. For a time, I felt every loss, cheered every win, be it my team or another. And *I’m* exhausted? That’s funny compared to the physical expenditure I’ve witnessed over 16 days. But then, my focus is skewed.

After all, I am a writer. And for the first time in my 63 years I had the opportunity to witness live moments as I never could before these games. With husband retired, we could sleep as needed, steal naps when necessary, all to achieve the joyful nirvana that comes with being in the moment. Why? Because tape delays are after-the-fact. Delays give you artificial experiences. There is nothing like feeling your stomach clinch because you want someone to win, you hope they don’t fall, you want them to break a record and you have no idea what the outcome will be. Nothing like gasping when a snowboarder tumbles and praying all is well. Nothing like seeing a skater do six – SIX – quadruple jumps. Live. Real. In the moment. Next to being there, this was being there. I was a part of it all. LIVE.

To experience the joys and sorrows as they played out. To FEEL and KNOW as the athletes did.

 (Courtesy Tampa Bay Times)

No, I won’t understand it all but I listened to stories for 16 days. I watched struggles play out in the slopes, on the ice, in the bobsled, on skates and in the faces of families. I worried and hoped along with mothers and sisters, and I cheered and jumped up and down (literaly) when goofy good air times happened in the half pipe. I leaned to the left during the bobsledding. I sat up straight during ice skating jumps. I held my breath during ski jumping and screamed when the girls’ hockey team won gold just as I did when the men won their first curling gold medal. I also clapped for the second place teams who shed tears for their loss. I understood because I saw it as it happened.

(Courtesy of ABC News)

I cheered for bobsled teams who were never going to win against the giants. Yet I applauded because they came, they TRIED, and everyone cheered them for trying. I did too. I held my breath during accidents and followed athletes I didn’t know and might never see again. I was with them. I was on their team. I was a cheerleader and a believer. I hurt for losses and I danced for gold and I cried when my flag raised high and the National Anthem played. I sang along, too.

16 days. In the end, as the lights are go out and the programming end, I experienced something magical that only happens every four years. And I forgave myself for ignoring my normal life in order to know more about incredible people achieving incredible feats.

Courtesy of the NY DAILY NEWS

Including the Mexican skier (above) who finished last in the cross country race. He didn’t win. He didn’t help his country. We don’t usually remember last place, right? But wait, that’s not true. I watched the first place gold medal winner come to the finish line (on the left) to greet the last man. You see, the Mexican athlete did win. He finished the race. His achievement was completing a grueling race and he never quit. He earned respect and he was carried like a winner because HE WAS ONE, most especially to the gold medalist.

And for 16 days that was the point of the whole thing. Personal best. Personal achievement. 

Finishing what you start. No medals required. After 16 days I understood the point of it all.

As a writer, these 16 days were a present in emotions and experience. The faces and events filled me as nothing else possibly could. Next to being there in person, watching live was fulfilling and enriching. The athletes’ stories are the future of my own tales and I experienced a plethora of emotions live that you just can’t get from the news or the day after on Facebook.

Nearly 3000 athletes, 92 nations, 23 medals. An Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius, in other words, Faster, Higher, Stronger. To be more, to go beyond, to breach limits. From Greece to Korea and all nations in between, we gathered united in one purpose under five rings:

to be our personal best.

16 days. I wouldn’t have missed a moment for anything. I am better because of those incredible days both as a writer and as a person.

Finally the night exploded with fireworks, alighting a stadium filled with Olympians. The light put sparks in the eye and ignited fresh fires in the hearts. The future beckoned and athletes promised to return.

So do I.

Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

Today is the venerable President’s Day. And yes, it’s with an apostrophe “s” and not an “s” apostrophe. It is not a multiple presidents’ day, though many believe that it is and truthfully, it sometimes is. Confused? President’s Day is actually President Washington’s Birthday remembered. Today we celebrate our founding father’s birth with cherry pie (or any cherry desserts) because supposedly George said, “I cannot tell a lie; I chopped down the cherry tree.” That statement is much debated but given February 20 is National Cherry Pie day, why not serve some?

Anyway, back to President’s Day. It isn’t actually Washngton’s birthday. That’s on the 22nd. But we needed to celebrate him so we made his birth a federal holiday (that Monday holiday law which I will not debate here). No, we don’t celebrate Lincoln’s Birthday because that was the 12th. Though, we do often lump both presidents together because it’s convenient and saves our making a second holiday. People often believe that Washington’s friend and future president Andrew Jackson was included in this President’s Day and that’s incorrect. Jackson’s birthday isn’t until March 15.

So what are we really celebrating? Besides celebrating our first President and one of the founding fathers, we are also celebrating the successors to the office of the Presidency, right? At least that is what Nixon wanted but that would be a falsehood if you believe that. Neither Congress, nor Nixon, changed the official name of the holiday.  No, we are only celebrating Washington’s Birthday.

Yes, a lot of finagling has gone on over the holidays and moving them to Mondays, and what date was original (Julian vs Gregorian calendars). But what matters right now is the day is called Washington’s Birthday and is meant to recognize one man. Just to be sure there’s no doubt about what day the government celebrates, Washington’s Farewell Address is read aloud in the Senate, a tradition that began in 1862. 

So what else is important? We give tribute to Washington because he was the general who created the first military badge of merit for the common soldier; in fact, there were three.

The Badge of Distinction for veterans non commissioned officers and soldiers who served more than three years and a second badge for non commissioned officers who served honorably more than six years. The last, and probably the most notable and historic, is the Badge of Merit. Described as: “whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding.” 

This Badge of Merit was given only three times during the American Revolution. But it became the reason behind General MacArthur’s behest for the Purple Heart in 1932.  Thus, George Washington’s face became the stamp on the front of the Purple Heart Medal. 

For this reason we can remember and honor our Founding President with pride. Sure, he was human and had slaves and was flawed in major ways. But I’m a retired, non-combat veteran and I am proud that this founding president thought so much of his soldiers that he wanted to reward them for sacrifice and service. He was the first and I am grateful.

We have 44 presidents since General Washington. Some we will never forget, some we will never remember. But of all who stood beside our flag, this first president was a man who cherished his servicemen, stood and fought beside them, worried over them, cried for them and cheered with them. He believed that honor was in how you served, how you behaved, and how you lived. Those beliefs made him a strong President on which to build a government.

He was the first. Happy Birthday General and President Washington. I salute you.

Thanks for stopping in.
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry