Me, Immigrant

I saw an old illustration the other day, a photograph advertising travel by rail. It dated from 1958 and featured travelers sitting on the train, having a meal, and watching the world go by. If you had elected to ride that train from Los Angeles to Chicago you would have left LA in the late morning and arrived in Chicago something like 40 hours later-- about the same time it would take today to ride an airliner back and forth between those two cities at least 8 times. Ironically enough, 1958 was the year you could start flying on jets across America. (Oh, yeah. And the Interstate Highway Act had freeways starting under construction throughout the country.)

There are a lot of parallels in modern society: Tweets and text in place of conversation. E-mail in place of a written letter. A tablet instead of a book or magazine. Now instead of later.

I'm not hopelessly stuck in the past. The benefits, pleasure, and safety we've gained from instant communication are certainly not lost on me. Likewise, I'm the first in line to take advantage of cross country travel for a weekend away. And packing a bulky hardbound book for the trip? No way. But I do have to wonder: What have we abandoned that we will not regain? What have we lost? As my Dad used to say, "you don't know what you're missing."

The problem is, even though the option exists to take advantage of snail technology, not many of us are interested in exploring the option. And so it is that we have no idea what we are not seeing when we no longer look out the window of a train crossing the country at 30, 50, or 70 miles an hour. We don't know what it's like to relax with a letter written by a loved one-- written on paper, perhaps scented with a favorite fragrance, and delivered in a mailbox. Soon enough, it seems, a large number of us won't know what it's like to have a conversation on a telephone-- or, possibly, even in person. And sit down for meals together? Really?

We're like immigrants, a strange kind of immigrant: Technological immigrants A large group of us are immigrants in a land of Twitter and tweets, e-mail, Amazon, and phonic shorthand. As immigrants, we would be well advised to assimilate and immerse ourselves in the new technology. I just hope that a significant number will also choose to keep the old ways in our lives as well.

Maybe it's time to pack a couple of books, grab some stationery, and take the train. All I need is a week or two.