Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time

Before the smart phone,

GPS and the internet,

There were printed road maps

That, amazingly,

If we followed the signs,

Would lead us from

A home in North Carolina,

To a destination, for instance,

In Arizona or Florida.

Or anywhere really.

City maps.

County maps.

State maps.

Region maps.

Even maps of entire countries.

The maps were the kind

That had to be folded up,

And that was the hard part:

Actually getting the map

Back into its pre-purchased shape.

Once upon a time

We made telephone calls

With a rotary dial, and

Kept an address book

With the numbers

We needed to call.

At one time

There was just one phone

In a home, often in a central location.

Progress brought extensions,

And folks had it easy

When getting a call in the dread of night

With a phone right next to the bed.

If one was lucky

The TV had 4 channels 

That one could actually see and hear.

Then cable came along,

And that changed what we thought

Was everything.

More, however, did not mean interesting,

A theme Springsteen addressed

With "57 Channels (And Nothing On)."

Little did we know then

That this was the tip

Of the glut iceberg.

Nowadays, those

Who still have cable can whine,

“1200 channels and nothing on.”

Once upon a time,

Music was played with

Use of a vinyl disc

On a record player

For much of the 20^th century.

Some fancy folks

Had 8-track in their cars in the 70s.

Then came cassettes.

Followed by CDs.

As digital advanced

Car makers included auxiliary ports

To hook up mp3 players. 

There were even designated iPod ports.

And until recently

Most cars had CD players.

But those days are over.
CDs in cars have been discontinued,

Because most people now

Use their phone to connect

To a music streaming source.

When the internet arrived,

It was rightfully deemed a remarkable invention.

One could communicate

With anyone else in the world instantly.

The earliest days of "online"

Were sublime.

But as humans were involved,

It did not take long

For the other side of the sublime coin

To make its presence known.

And soon, the Smart Phone marched

Into our collective reality, providing, in essence,

A computer one could fit in a pocket or purse

With which one could go online anywhere,

And even speak with someone else.

But texting gradually replaced talking

Partly, perhaps, because it can be

Such a passive-aggressive mode

Of contacting and informing.

It became clear that the tool that offered connection

In real time was actually being used

To defer engagement;

And because words on a phone screen have no tone,

Meaning, or even worse, intended meaning

Was often lost or misunderstood.

“I didn’t get the text,” replaced

“I didn’t get the call.”

Recently while on a tour bus at Gettysburg,

I noticed there were as many tourists

Staring at their phones

As there were actually 

looking at the battlefields.

That’s fucked up.

The Smart Phone can be a vital resource

But if it breaks, or it can’t be charged

Its owner is often left in a dark ages vacuum

Without threat of an answer or a result.

At times, the Smart Phone can be

Allah, 

Jesus 

or Lao Tsu.

A Smart Phone is often

A newspaper,

A juke box, 

A photo album, 

A source of endless self-congratulatory nonsense

In which one becomes the star of his/her own universe.

You can Tweet, you can Messenger, you can Snap and you can Instagram.

You can feel as if you are connecting.

But that’s the virtual rub.

Most of the time

You are simply gazing into a digital mirror

In the vain hope that you get "liked" and retweeted.

And because anyone can post and claim to be factual,

A smart phone makes it easier to scam and con 

Enormous numbers of people in an instant.

Does this remind you have anyone, say,

Who is orange hued and opposed to facts?

Does not have to be this way.

We lost John Prine

But his wisdom remains.

Decades ago, he advised:

“Blow up your TV, throw away your papers

Go to the country, build you a home

Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches

Try and find Jesus on your own.”

All of this still works

With one caveat;

Blow up your smart phone, too.

Or at least learn

How to be efficient and effective

Without it.

Instead of texting,

Actually speak with someone.

Digital is as quick as it is cold.

And these days,

Who needs more cold?