"Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart . . ." ~ Don Black (lyrics)
When I was young, I used to hear this song quite often. At some point, it became "elevator music" in the 1970's, and it always caught my attention. Later, I liked to play it on the piano.
Why?
Because it's true.
Often children remember things that we far too often forget as adults. And especially, lately.
Path photo by Susan Larison Danz.
"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you of how powerful they are." ~ Clive James
Something came up about cars yesterday that led me to reflect on a few things. In the "old days", especially in the 70's, you would regularly see people "working on" cars in a neighborhood. Even as a young child growing into a teen, it was a regular observation that there were plenty of people around who knew how to fix and maintain a car in a variety of ways. Or if you did need to bring a car in to a mechanic, it was relatively simple, usually.
This has changed.
No doubt, there are countless reasons why, safety-wise, emission-wise, etc. - and yes, feature-wise.
However, for whatever the reasons, the world has changed. And it is my continuing intent in this blog to explore how these changes have changed how we behave.
When cars became essentially impossible for people who liked to fix their own cars to independently fix, something changed. A dependency was created that didn't exist in the same way before. This had an impact on regular life and self-sufficiency.
Technology can solve and enhance any number of things, but it also continually takes us in a direction that makes life more intricate.
I was watching a movie the other night from the late 1980's in which a character was in a fancy town car and fascinated with the automated locks.
It got me to thinking about the days when there were no power locks and you manually opened the windows yourself. As convenient as that "feature" is and probably more secure, there is something I miss about cranking open a car window. What is that about?
Car photo from the mid-1980's, Susan Larison Danz.
"I can see clearly now . . ." ~ Johnny Nash
I dwell in the 1970's quite a bit, and there's a reason for that. Though every era has its complications, technology has changed us. Not all technology is bad, obviously - I'm using it right now - but let's leave that aside for the moment - because, you see, we didn't know back then what we would view as lacking now.
I have been reading poetry and fragments of essays lately. In an actual hardcover book that I obtained from the second hand store. Not to say that really should be all that unusual, but lately, yes. I used to read A LOT in the 70's, pretty much all the time when I could (and in most of my spare moments in the 80's as well). When the television only has a handful of channels (at most), there are no computers, there are no video tapes, DVDs, DVRs or "video on demand", you either occupy yourself outside in some way or you read books. Or maybe you bring a book outside and read it in a hammock hanging from a tree (which was one of my favorite things to do in the summer in the 70's).
We've lost something.
And it is vitally important.
We need to be "entertained". Some of that entertainment may require us to think, but most of us are just not reading like we used to. I aim to take it up a notch, truthfully, as not everything I read independently (i.e., apart from school) in the 70's and 80's was particularly demanding.
We have forgotten simplicity, and what it feels like. We are over-stimulated much of the time. Perhaps the Covid era has provided glimpses of simplicity - but probably not enough.
We need more clarity. And it isn't going to arrive by continually being distracted from it. I am thankful to be unveiling it, ever more deeply.
Blue Skies photo by Susan Larison Danz.
"There is nothing permanent, except change." ~ Heraclitus
I was watching a movie earlier from 1988 in which a person is looking for some simple information, walks into a government office, and is told it will be sent to him in a month. On the internet, you could find it in about a minute. But we didn't have the internet back then. In some ways, 1988 feels like yesterday. But when it comes to technology, it feels like forever.
I wasn't really intending to talk about the internet tonight. I was thinking about microwave ovens - and when they first arrived - it was a little bit before 1988, I suppose - I know I didn't have one in my college apartment in the early to mid 80's. I've used them at times in my life, when in a hurry, but then that changed. I've mentioned I'm a bit of a neo-Luddite, and here is another way I suppose it is true.
I almost never use the microwave oven anymore. Occasionally for popcorn (I'd use Jiffy Pop on the stove if they still sold it or a good old-fashioned popcorn popper pan with a crank - it tastes much, much better - why don't they sell Jiffy Pop anymore? And as we speak, I looked it up on the internet, and they DO still sell it - it took less than a minute to find out). I might melt butter in the microwave or I might use a pan. And that about sums up my current microwave oven usage.
You see, I actually DO remember that Jiffy Pop popcorn is better, and pretty much everything else. And just about every kind of leftover imaginable tastes better if you heat it in the oven. You just need to be patient - the same is true with defrosting. When it comes to making meals, I'm still living in the 70's. And that's perfectly fine with me.
Ripples photo by Susan Larison Danz.
"Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master." ~ Christian Lous Lange
It was 1972 or 1973. I can't quite remember exactly. It may have even been 1974, but I tend to think it was earlier. I remember the moment quite vividly. My mathematically-inclined brother walked into the house and held out something in his hand.
"What's that?"
"It's called a calculator."
And so it goes, with time.
Photo Credit: NASA
"Time is like a river." ~ Marcus Aurelius
I'd like to take a moment and revisit why logistically the Roots mini-series experience in early 1977 was unlike anything that could occur today. To understand that time, for those who didn't live it, one needs to understand that we lived in a much different way. There was no widespread way to "tape something on TV" (yet) - I remember when I first heard about Betamax, and I suppose it was kind of around that time, but I really don't remember the notion of regularly being able to tape something until around 1980 or so. Nobody had these devices yet, not most people, anyway.
Certainly in early 1977, if you wanted to watch something on television, the vast majority of us watched it live. That's why Roots, when it first aired, was even more powerful, entirely a shared experience, night after night after night - and most of those were school nights. I didn't miss an episode, but at that particular age, I usually didn't have something scheduled at night - if I had a piano lesson, for example, or a spelling bee (which I was involved in at that time), it would usually be in the afternoon. No, we didn't miss a night, and no way would we miss it. It was an unprecedented phenomenon at the time, and the first mini-series I recall that went night to night like that.
We were having this shared experience, together. And it was powerful. I also feel it's important to note that we FELT every bit of it, everyone I knew who was having this experience. We felt it very deeply. We would talk about it at school the next day. It was not something anyone who truly experienced it would ever forget.
Stream photo by Susan Larison Danz.
