New Year

Golly. A new year. Yep, another one ticked off. Some are hard to take in.  2000 was one of those. Imagine a new millennium! Imagine being born in the previous century. Imagine when I was a kid thinking forward toward the new century and wondering what it would be like. Now I know.

Not surprising really. Same old, same old, don’t you know. Not exactly ho-hum but almost. Maybe it’s because we get used to the metronome of life ticking off time, days, years. Maybe rhythm carries us along?

The changes matter of course. They are not always noticed. Trends occur yet get swept up in larger currents of change and get overlooked. Year-end reviews help us see some things.  I always laugh at changing styles of cars – the chrome dripping days of the 1950’s, the fins of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. White wall tires, of course. Most people under 35 don’t even know about white walls!~or curb feelers?

The pencil, and ball point pen. Scotch tape and duct tape. Plastic. Wrap around windshields. Variable speed wipers. Deep dish steering wheels. Hubcaps. What are these things? Mostly automotive, of course, but also paradigms of modern life we take for granted.

Telephones. Each home did not always have a phone. When we did we didn't always have a private line. Those were extra cost! Then suddenly everyone had a phone and a private line. Extension phones became a convenience. One phone per floor of your home became a standard, and then one in the kitchen and the bedroom, and the hallway, and the living room.

Imagine the surprise when cordless phones entered the picture! And then wireless everything including land-line phones being replaced by cell phones. Voices in mid air, more mysterious than radio. But never mind; science explains it and we are not to worry ourselves about the details.  Sort of like space travel. We don’t actually do that yet but we are certain we will one day.

Meanwhile the car has slimmed down its size and shape. Packed inside are marvels of technology, not just convenience. Now we can hear voices over the radio speaker meant just for me. And phoning someone is as easy as speaking the name and the computer connects you. And changes your radio dial, and hears weather band warnings, calls up GPS routes and a dazzling array of other distractions.

Then the accident rates rise as the distractions take their toll. Humans are reminded they cannot do too many things at the same time. Their minds must remain focused on the important things, like not running into another car, or driving over a pedestrian, or avoiding the telephone pole.

So driving laws are changing. No more phones actively in use by the driver. As of January 1 in Illinois. A good law, I think. I wish it weren't necessary. I liked the convenience of the cell phone hands free feature. But it is true that most people cannot drive, talk on the phone and diddle with other conveniences at the same time safely. Studies have proven this. So our abilities have boundaries.

Meanwhile ice storms continue to kill electric power distribution. So do accidents, windstorms, heavy snows and hurricanes, tornadoes, and countless other above ground phenomena. Trouble is those phenomena are not odd or rare. So why isn't the power grid mostly underground out of harms way?  Because the power industry doesn't want to pay for it. We have already paid for it countless times over as the power industry repairs and replaces cable, lines, and poles endlessly because of experienced hazards.

As soon as the power is restored we forget the misery of cold homes, rotten food in freezers and fridges. Or burst pipes from frozen plumbing, or so many other bad experiences caused by prolonged power outages. Almost all of them could be avoided. But the industry tells us no.

One day each of our homes will have its own power plant. There will be no power grid physically present. There will be transmissions but they will be based on modern physics, not electro-mechanical engineering principles now in use.

Same with cars. They will not burn fossil fuels to travel down the road. They will find propulsion from other forms of synthetic energy. And materials will come from chemicals not oils. Maybe even oils we grow in the soil rather than mined from it.

And houses that serve our needs for periods of years, then alter to serve changing needs in later life, or ease of switching as life-needs alter our use patterns.

No longer do we scratch out a yard from a patch of land, build a cabin, inhabit that abode and expand it over the years. Now we live in a nearly plug-in environment where needs will be met without major upset.

As long as we control expectations many of these visions will emerge. It just takes time to get used to the changes.

So many changes. Many for the good. Focus on those. Not on the other.

Let it be, so it will be.

January 1, 2014