Evolution Revolution

Every once in a blue moon I like to reflect over my life history to date and chart the milestones so I can give myself either a well deserved pat on the back, or some well meaning advice or lifestyle coaching.

It seems like a whole new world has emerged since I started my journey on this earth forty years or so ago. Back then life seemed slower. Not just because I had the impatience of a child, but because day to day living seemed simpler. There weren't so many high tech gadgets distracting us for a start. A permanent job could last for decades. No one used the word 'stressed' as a mood. Families didn't move around so often. People didn't jet off around the world so regularly. You kept in touch with people by the home telephone, a chunky dialler that took 5 minutes to dial a number, or you used the call box on the corner, or you posted a letter and waited weeks for a reply. There were no mobile phones, internet, blue tooth, wap, web cams, email, sms, mms, video phones, video anything! We might just as well send smoke signals up over the mountain tops by waving an old blanket over an open log fire when we wanted to send a message. We thought walkie talkies were amazing when we were kids, though you couldn't really hear each other over the static and you had to be within 10ft of each other to pick up a signal. Tin cans on strings were only slightly better. The transister radio was magical. Followed by Atari tennis, blip, blip, a real revolution. I was a teenager by the time they came out with the Commadore 64.. but we knew then that the world was speeding up. We were advancing toward a whole new world of possibilities. We were pioneers of the modern world. Revolutionising the way people would communicate, work, play games and interact with each other in future generations to come.

Do I pat myself on the back just for being old enough to see the changes that technology has brought us? No, I don't think so. Perhaps I can pat myself on the back instead for keeping up with the changes and managing to remain a misfit on the cutting edge of haute couture, completely kittted out with the latest techno gadgets and funky gizmos. Yes, I am a modern woman with her finger on the pulse. What more could anyone ask for? A fair, caring, world filled with love and compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and equality? Yes, maybe I could also ask for that...