Modern Technology

I can't help myself-I have to write about computers YET AGAIN!! I am sitting here on my friends laptop (thank-you Katie!), not only checking e-mail and blogs, but communicating with people half way around the world!!! What would our ancestor think? Truly we forget the modern world we are living in. I used to feel guilty about all this "moderness". What would my great-grandmother say if she could microwave a Lean Cuisine for lunch? What would my ancestors say if they could have flown out of Russia instead of the overland trip through Europe and then a cruise to Ellis Island? Even bagged lettuce made me feel guilty. No more howing the rows, planting the seeds, watering, harvesting, preserving, and then getting a meager salad for dinner. Grab the scissors (I have no muscle) and cut the bag open as I pull the pizza out of the stove. Ever think about life without a vacuum cleaner? I often think of hiring someone else to use it, but I can't imagine life wihtout one.
I truly used to feel guilty about all of this. Millions of years of progress and invention all so i can watch some tart on tv tell me how I can wash my curtains (a huge worry in my life) or some idiot tell me he fired people I don't know. Or so i can get to the grocery store in 5 minutes or less to buy a Kit kat that will attach itself to my butt like flies on a lightbulb (ha-ha-you thought I was going to say soemthing else!). Watching lives saved by modern medicine seems worthwhile and noble, but having a can of deoderizer JUST for my son's room (out darn diaper pail, out!) seems like awaste of all that technology it took to get the can.
But a few days ago I went to a re-created community in Fort Rock, Ore. A preservation society has been collecting abanodoned prairie buildings and fixing them so we people can go through them and learn. One of the guides was even nice enough to play a real phonograph for us!! It was a treat to hear that "modern technology". And I learned another thing- one hundred years ago there would be no guilt-they would have eaten the damn bag of lettuce. One hundred years ago, the chance to be able to go "to town" at the flick of a car key would have been a welcome opportunity.
Human Beings have always created things of comfort and entertainment-it's why they took the animal skins and stretch them across a wooden base so they could have drums. Oooo-break out the disco tonight. It's why religious ceremonies often had social competitions like the first olympic Games. Pray to the Gods, run a race against your neighbor, and check out the cute girls from the neighboring village. So no more feeling guilty about all the neat things we have to use. When I eat that chocolate chip cookie out of the package, I will do it in honor of all the previous relatives who never got the chance but would have liked too. I think it is the least I can do, because all the previous generations would have used these things too-it is why they invented them in the first place.