Things

They walked through the door, and he immediately spotted the phone. It was a large and heavy Retro-chrome thingy sitting on Grandma's counter.

"What's that?" he said.

"It's a phone."

He stared at me. "But Grandma, it can't be. It's too big." This, coming from a Boomlet who had only ever dealt with digital.

But, given the dial tone, we finally established that it was genuine and in good working order. "May I please try it out?" he enthused.

"Of course! Who would you like to call?" I said.

"How about Mom?!" 

I prompted him through the dialing process, and soon his mother's cell began to buzz.

"Hellooo," said she, from a few yards away.

"IT'S ME!!" said her son, thrilled with this success.

He called his sister next, with mixed results. After a few moments neither he nor she really knew what to talk about, and what they did talk about did not make sense to Grandma. 

Throughout, there were a few accidental hang-ups, long pauses, and finally, the actual termination of the call. Suddenly Gramps had the boat ready, and everyone trouped out for a blissful ride. Then there was supper. Then Gramps heated the hot tub, and everybody dashed into the warm bubbles for a session of splashing and screaming. At the end of the evening, Mommy set up Prince of Egypt on the iPad, and sleepy children gazed in silence as the adults drew breath. And then it was time to go home.

"It was fun talking on your phone," said the boy, as he walked toward their van. When asked what he thought of it, his laconic response was, "It was awful heavy."

I've noticed over the years that things which used to be 'awful heavy' are becoming smaller and lighter, and out-perform their bulky antecedents. Today, a tiny computer chip will do what it used to take a room full of hulking computers to accomplish. It seems rather confusing.

One would think that the people of this world would be ecstatic. Would feel enormously grateful for all of this unbelievable progress and ease. Would never be mean to their fellow men but instead, would take this progress and make it truly useful.

But I think we were happier with the bulky antecedents. Even if they were 'awful heavy'.

See you along the Way!

the SconeLady

2 Corinthians 4:18

 "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."