A few people have told me that I am a relic of the past; they do not quite understand my position on modern technology. Those folks believe that I despise it. That is patently false. The truth - I do not like that a major portion of our society is addicted to it. I think that it has made us lazy, and not just physically lazy but also brain lazy.
A student of not to long ago had to do his research for a school project in a library; the bigger the library, the better. Yesterday, my 12 year old granddaughter was told by her teacher to "google it" to find the information needed to complete her homework. To me, that's just way to easy, for student and teacher. So you can imagine that there was no word about a trip to the library. Why not have the student "google it" and then verify that information with a visit to the library? I guess that would be too hard on student and teacher. The assumption that all information can be found on the internet is a false assumption. A similar assumption was made by crazy robed monks so many centuries ago - all we need to know can be found in Jesus - when they burned the Library of Alexandria to the ground. Maybe that's why some people have the misconception that I dislike technology. That, and my old red pen.
My old red pen has been with me for as long as I can remember. Two years ago, the pocket clip broke off; I super glued it. Every book, short story, and blogpost of mine is first written by me pushing that red pen over paper. And, I always have 2 black, medium point ink refills ready to be used when needed. When I am completely satisfied with the hand written work, then and only then will it be typed into my computer for publication.
Some folks have told me that my method is too much work, too much effort, and too time consuming. Terry, they said, go right to the computer and save yourself time and aggravation. That's not my way. It does not work for me; I lose creativity. So why try and fix what's not broken? Over the years, 3 computers have shit the bed and left me hanging. But my red pen works just as well as the day I bought it. And I bought it before I purchased my first computer. Now, if only my old red pen and I could get my granddaughter and her classmates to the library.
Copyright @ 2013 Terry Unger
