The Wonders of the Age We Live In

Photo by Elaine Klonicki

“America’s greatest strength has always been its hopeful vision of human progress.”
~ John McCain

This week I treated myself to one of the best presents a writer can get: a new laptop, on sale no less! Hubby and I spent Sunday afternoon migrating my old applications, files, and data to my new system. (Thank you, Sweetie!)

Every time I get a new computer, the process is more streamlined. This time we put the two laptops side by side and used an app called Migration Assistant, with the help of a YouTube video. The whole conversion seemed to happen magically. In just a few hours, I was up and running with a mirror image of everything on my new computer.

I spend many hours a day on my laptop, to the point where some of the letters on my old keyboard had actually rubbed off! My nephew, who works in tech, said he’d only seen that happen one other time, and it was on the keyboard of another writer. As an introvert, I “let my fingers do the walking (and talking)” much of the day, even texting on my laptop instead of my phone when I’m at home.

With Microsoft 365, a faster operating system, and increased internet speed (thank you, Spectrum!), my new computer just flies.

Speaking of flying (like that segue?), I’m actually writing this on a flight to California where tonight we will celebrate my birthday with our son and his family. I started receiving texts early this morning, and there were even more when I turned my phone back on after our first flight. What a joy to be able to receive so many well wishes in (almost) real time.

I could not be any more grateful for the incredible technology we have access to in this age.

Hubby and I fly out to see our son several times a year, and it never ceases to amaze me that we can wake up in our own bed in the morning, hop on a couple of flights, and go to bed on the west coast that night.

Flying across country often puts me in an expansive mood. As I look down at the terrain below and think of all the people we’re passing by in their houses and cars, many thoughts run through my head. I can only imagine how the astronauts feel when they are able to view our entire globe at once. I’ve heard several of them try to describe it in interviews and they struggle to find the words. The best they can do is to say it is life changing.

This trip the thought that came to me is that from one end of the country to the other, despite the dramatically different vistas and great expanses of land in between the lakes and rivers, nearly every home has running water and electricity. Think of the sustained effort it took to develop the infrastructure to make that happen! The story of the rural electrification of America in the 1930s is fascinating.

As I look down upon the roads, bridges, and railroad tracks, I think about how much progress was made. Much of the construction was started during the Great Depression in an effort to put people to work. If we include cable and Wi-Fi, within a span of about a hundred years, many souls working together created most of the utilities and technology that we now use daily. It boggles the mind. The evolution of our country from mostly rural, isolated towns to an interconnected group of people who can share information (and birthday wishes!) with each other within minutes is nothing short of astounding.

 Although there is fear associated with every new technology that is developed, we soon adapt and learn to embrace them. It’s hard for us to imagine, but not so long ago, people were afraid of electricity, the telephone, and even the first computers. They weren’t sure how they would change our world and they worried that things would never be the same.

My friend Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons, presented an episode called “The Threshold” about how every new technology has the power to be used for good and for ill. It was one of his themes in the latter part of his life. At that time, he was largely concerned about the advent of television and films and the influence they would have on our culture. Today our fear is largely centered around Artificial Intelligence (AI), and while there is certainly good reason to be cautious, already people are seeing incredible results with it when put to use for good.

Human beings have evolved in amazing ways. So much of what we’re seeing now—for instance, the new sphere in Las Vegas—feels truly futuristic. The advances in healthcare and food and energy production are exciting. We even have self-driving cars, although that is one technology that unnerves me. Still, I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

This holiday season, with wars on several fronts across the globe dominating the news, it can feel like humans are working against each other too much of the time, destroying more than they’re building.

When we’re discouraged about the state of the world, it’s easy to forget all the good that people are capable of when we have a common goal.

For now, I’m limiting my access to the news so I can focus on the best of humanity and the great things we can accomplish when we work together. God willing, we will see an end to the wars soon and much more cooperation on every level in our future.

I wish you peace this holiday season.

Affectionately,

Elaine