Get Used To It

It’s nice to use my spring voice again.
“Ahh…it’s fifty degrees. Let’s get out the shorts and go for a walk.”
You have to take advantage of the warmer weather seasons here in New Hampshire because, before long, you know you’ll be using your autumn voice again.
“Argh, it’s fifty degrees outside. I’m not going for a walk, it’s freezing out. Turn up the heat.”
It’s all a matter of what you are used to,
Sometimes it’s just a yearly thing; your thought patterns adjusting from season to season. Other times it has to do with life experiences.
It seems like only a few short years ago that we all gathered around our new computers, hooked up to this thing called the Internet, and after listening to the hissing and beeping sounds of a connection finally being made, we stood in awe as a picture was downloaded (If we even called it that). We would watch it appear line by line, pixel by pixel, for what seemed forever, until, finally, the picture appeared on the screen fifteen minutes later.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” we would say in amazement as a fuzzy photo of something completely unremarkable appeared on the screen.
Nowadays we click on an email and then the attached photo and it usually appears in seconds. Of course, sometimes things don’t always go as fast as we want and it might take all of fifteen seconds for the image to appear.
“Man, the Internet is really slow today,” we grumble. “This is really aggravating.”
It’s all a matter of what you are used to.
For us baby boomers, we can take this back even further.
I can recall our family owning a small black and white television whose operation depended on some clunky giant tubes and a piece of metal on the roof that, somehow, magically captured images, sent them down a wire and onto our screen.
Sure, there was only three or four channels, but there always seemed to be something on that would gather our attention and keep us mesmerized. Occasionally, the picture might get a little fuzzy, but that was okay, we’d make it through.
I wouldn’t even get into when color televisions and remote control appeared. It was like a world of magic. We didn’t care what was on TV, just as long as there was something to watch.
Today there is a selection of hundreds of channels that we can choose from to watch literally countless types of different programs. Choose a subject, there is probably a station for it.
“This week on cooking with chimpanzees……”
Still, we often find ourselves, sitting on our couches, remote control in hand, searching through this vast wasteland of entertainment and occasionally moan: “There’s nothing on.”
It’s all a matter of what you are used to.
It wasn’t that long ago that you actually had to push the doors in the supermarket open with your own two hands. We never thought twice about it.
Nowadays if we encounter a supermarket door that doesn’t open automatically upon our arrival, we stand perplexed, staring at said door we almost walked right in to, wondering what is wrong. It takes about a second or two until our old primitive instincts kick in and we go back to our ancient habits of using our own strength. Maybe you should report this to the store manager so others don’t have to continue to go through this ordeal.
It’s all a matter of what you are used to.
It took me a while to stop looking every time I heard the quick beep of a car horn in a parking lot. My old instincts, before the days of automatic key fobs, make me stop and look. Maybe an old friend has spotted me and was trying to get my attention. Nowadays it is just someone locking their car doors. I don’t look anymore.
It’s all a matter of what you are used to.
It seems to me that all of these technological changes we have become used to over the years has softened us up a bit, made us a more impatient society as a whole. We have access to more information and entertainment at our fingertips than we could ever have dreamed of years ago, but if we can’t access it immediately we become upset.
Everything moves faster, but no one seems to have enough time to get everything done. We have the latest gadgets but can’t wait to upgrade to the next, faster one.
Unfortunately, that is what we are getting used to.
It’s nice to know that we can still count on the seasons to change in an orderly fashion, no matter what some may say.
So, I am going to get out my shorts and take a nice peaceful walk in the cool spring air. After this long winter, I could get used to this.

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