David Heiller
We got a new car recently, and I am thrilled with it. I had been driving a
1996 Taurus, which had 267,400 miles and a multitude of sins.
Alan Wunmecka now has it in his scrap heap.
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| I suppose ours like this when it was new, but not by the time it became David's. |
The new car is
a 1993 Taurus with 150,000
miles. It has a good radio and cruise control. The muffler is a little
loud, and the check engine light flickers to life every so often, but no problem.
Some people might not be as thrilled as I am with my new car, but it’s a big
improvement, and that’s the key to my happiness.
It got me to
thinking
about how improvements work or don’t work.
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Look around
in your life—there are improvements everywhere. Start with your car;
bet it’s a lot nicer than that 1954 Chevy your family drove when you were a kid.
And we haven’t seen anything compared to what’s coming, with navigation systems
that tell you how to get to the Christmas party, and satellite radio, got to have
that, and of course a DVD player for the kiddies.
Your camera sure beats the old Kodak Brownie or even instamatic. Remember how excited everyone was when that came out?
Now we are getting
digital models that are built into
our cell phones.
Speaking of which, your telephone went from a wall hanger to a cordless
to something called a razor: (Probably don’t even have that spelled right.)
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| Ms. Malika getting a hand from our friend, Kevin, on her cool (used) molded skates. Another amazing change: cold weather clothing!) |
Your house is a lot warmer now, better insulated. It has indoor plumbing!
A few people can remember trips to the Johnny House, Cindy and I spent the first
12 years of our married life making that trek. We appreciate indoor plumbing. But
we take it for granted too.
I saw a
display of
old ice
skates at The Historical Society’s open house a couple weeks ago. Remember those
double runners that got strapped to the bottom of your boots? Not quite the same
as today’s modern molded wonders.
Television has gone from tiny black and white screens to color. Wow,
I remember going to Stanley Cram’s house in 1966 to watch Star Trek on a color TV.
Heaven. Now there are 52-inch, high definition models with about 200 channels to
choose from—if we so choose. And pretty soon that will be the ho-hum norm.
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| Those old clip on skates... Yikes. |
I could go on and on. That’s the
thing: we are surrounded by improvements. I'm not sure we need them all, but
I’ll leave that judgment to each individual and family.
It’s nice to go through the
evolution of things, and think about it on occasion. It’s nice to appreciate
the progress we have made, and also to ask ourselves, “Do we really need that?”
Especially this time of year when the commercials on TV have greed as their
underlying theme.
In the meantime, I’ll keep on
driving my “new” car, and do so happily.
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