Friday, December 5, 2008

Being Old...ain't so bad!

In this age of new technology, it seems a person has a hard time keeping up with the ever-changing technology and the associated gadgets. And I would be on the list of those who had bought into a gadget or two. I'm as lazy as the next guy who likes something that will make a task easier, or a thing faster, or a movie more entertaining. There is a lot of cool stuff out there. Imagine, if you put the technology in contrast to what we have today compared to what they had say, 100 years ago in 1908...whoa!

So it seems to follow that 'newer is better'! Or that the old does not work as well as the new! Technology is moving so fast that manufacturers actual make electronic items cheap, actually designing things like cell phones to only last two years; because they know you'll want a newer model before two years is up. Try explaining that rational to your Grandparents.

Now it may be true that technology is changing so fast that it forces you to buy a new computer every few years in order to keep up. I'm not convinced its always better. Is Vista better than Windows for example? No... I'm not here to debate that issue. I can say that at my work, every time they update our software with some new application...it ain't always better. Sure we may gain some new gadget or functionality, but invariably we lose something also.

Ever heard the expression: 'They don't make em like they use to'? There is sound reasoning for that kind of thinking! They don't make anything like they use to; unless it's some old guy keeping a trade alive. Everything is thinner, or lighter, or done a different way these days..."Where you been old timer?"

I'm here, just trying to make sense of it all.

And its not just technology! They don't make families like they use to. Where everybody comes home and eats a family meal. Where children respect their parents, or teachers, or elders. Where a man's word was truthful and good. Where people waited to have sex till they were married. Where a boy would not dream of talking back to his father.

When you start looking at the big picture, perhaps the 'old is better than the new'!?

I recently became a father again at an age that is older than the age of most fathers these days. I know a lot more than most of them. I've learned a thing or two along the way. And I'll teach some better value's than most of them. I hope to raise a good man.

So...maybe being old ain't such a bad thing! Maybe being a little old fashioned is a good thing. I can say that in the old days, they built a better man. They built a better family. They built a better home, and they built a better car. The list is long. And had there been such a thing as a computer, they probably would have built a better computer. One that would last. And the very idea, the very idea, to create a virus that would go forth and maliciously destroy someone else's property...for no reason whatsoever...would never even cross the mind of a man.

Yes, I'm old. And damn proud to say so! There's a lot to be said for the good ole days!

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

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