Time Machine

"The shortest distance between two points is under construction."
Leo Aikman

"Please Mr. Postman," The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuGgWRyhPsI


Communication ain't what it used to be. And, oh what a relief it is!

When I was the age of our youngest daughter, 17, I could chose among many methods to stay in touch with people who moved away or relatives who lived in faraway states. Handwritten letters, cards, and postcards. Long-distance phone calls from a land line. Of course, the term "land line" had not yet been invented - it was either the home phone or a phone in a phone booth. If you had a really big announcement or tragedy to tell, you sent a telegram. In my first job out of college, one of the things I needed to do for new business development was learn how to use the telegraph machine. To communicate with colleagues in Japan.

Those were the days, huh?! Any readers under the age of about 35 are probably laughing their heads off.

That's OK. I'm laughing right along with you.

But, the thing that has come to mind recently is how much commitment of time, money, and energy those communication devices required. And what a marvelous excuse it is to say that those clunky methods were the real reason you didn't do your job as a friend.

It was very easy to lose touch with people. It was very hard to stay connected to people, even if you really cared about them. The press of time and maturing often caused unintended rifts. Obviously, if you took the time to actually sit down and write a letter to someone by hand, you cared a lot about them. Love letters were kept in boxes. (I have two such boxes, still.) Somebody's mother was always patrolling the mail box, too. So, even if you were innocently communicating, you could easily be promoted to promiscuous with the stroke of a pen.

Letters really meant something. They were not to be entered into lightly, without reservation. If you were dating someone and wanted to stay in touch with someone who might be perceived as competition and were found to have written a letter to that person, well -- let's just say that it was a problem. Same for long distance charges. I wonder how many marriages used to be broken when spouses found suspicious phone numbers on a monthly statement and called one of them. Only to find themselves on the wrong end of a conversation with a total stranger. That probably happens today anyway. Same day, same monthly statement, different phone device.

Did I say that it was really easy to wake up one day and find yourself adrift from all kinds of people? Even people you cared about.

In one of my favorite books ("Ageless Marketing"), my friend David Wolfe simplifies the discussion about how our brains change as we age. It's partly Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, partly physiology. Suffice to say, once we pass 50 years of age, we view many things differently in our lives. Wisdom alone isn't responsible for this transformation.

It's no surprise to me, then, that I think about people from my past -- even my very distant past -- much more now than ever before. And, what luck to have a computer on my lap to facilitate time travel like never before.

Certainly, joining Facebook has fueled a lot of curiosity about people I used to know. Even people I used to know just a little bit. It is one of the potential ways to answer the question, "what ever happened to Joe?"

When Google permitted us to review "Google 2001" for a month during their anniversary celebration, the amazing discoveries of forgotten stuff were almost overwhelming. And, less than a decade has passed since 2001; so, it was also startling to face the fact about how much information and "trace" data has already been scrubbed from the internet.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to have what we have. I am trying to find a few people. It's like a new hobby. I don't know if all of the people I'm seeking will be as intrigued with the notion as me. Some of them may not welcome the intrusion. They will remember me. But, I don't know if what they remember will matter enough to them to pick up communication in mid-life and go forward like nothing ever changed.

But, it's an interesting endeavor, n'est pas?? I think I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by working to expand -- or, recapture -- my sphere of friends. My commitment to life-long learning will be enhanced by every person who responds positively.

I should have tried harder to stay connected to the people I'm seeking now. But, I'm not going to beat myself over the head with guilt. They wouldn't be on my search list if they had tried to stay in touch with me either.

I'm going to give them the same benefit-of-the-doubt that I'm hoping they will give me. And, I'll be happy when I get their return e-mail -- the easiest form of communication currently known to man.

Imagine, if you will, a world where the simple act of hitting the "reply" box at 3 a.m. in your bunny slippers didn't even exist.

Perhaps that world you've just imagined is The Twilight Zone.

Perhaps you're right.