Carol was widowed a few months ago and this is a hard time for her. She sometimes, usually actually, feels like a duck out of water but I tell her that we must go. It's good for her. for me. for all of us. Tonight as we were heading home I told her of the gift I'm giving her. I'll tell you but first I have to backtrack.
In 9th grade I learned to type on an old Underwood Typewriter that was quite the contraption. This is not a picture of me!!! I wanted you to see the Typewriter. You had to change the spool ribbon and hit the return handle at the end of every sentence. It took a lot of oomph to press the keys hard enough to make an impression. It was heavy to lift!
I seem to have no hesitancy to call attention to my antiquity! Anyhow that is the typewriter with it's myriad of details that must be handled properly to get everything centered etc. Then things advanced to the Royal Typewriter and in class we'd try to get one and not be stuck with the old Underwood...
Years later they developed an electric typewriter and it was great!!
and even later the first Word Processors with a screen! marvelous!!!
The Brother WP1, an electronic typewriter complete with a small screen and a floppy disc reader.
and of course we moved right into personal computers for our homes...
Things from that point on have continued to evolve. Now I was content to stay on the Word Processor and saw no need to move to anything else. I had to be convinced to let go of my floppy discs but I did have my light bulb moment and eventually fell in love with my PC (look how savvy I am! PC!)
Then along came E-mail. I have to say, if I was into building shrines, then I'd have some sort of stone fortress with a chiseled homage to E-mail. If there was some sort of usage limit, I would have drained the entire earth supply early on. I saw it's worth. I used it for everything to contact everyone. I was an RSP that used it for everything in RS. (Cindy did finally ask me to stop emailing her. Ouch! Whimper.) My communication world was just fine. I wanted nothing else. I had it all.
Then as happens in progression, especially in technology, things change and become more advanced and new things are added. Interference. Unnecessary. Unwanted. Unused. well, by me anyhow. I had my beloved email (correct spelling. it's even in the dictionary!) 2 things were touted....blogs and FaceBook.
Having this insatiable desire to talk about the Gospel in my life, I eventually got up the courage, after hearing talks at General Conference to share your Gospel life, to do a blog. Perhaps my life is not exactly what they were talking about but it is the only life I have and it is my life in the Gospel and I do absolutely love the Gospel and I am trying to live it. So I'm trying to spread the word and it took a year before I put my name on it!! Still no picture. Just clothes blowing in the breeze and I love that picture and that's okay. So now I still love my email but my heart is now so bloggable!! I think blogging thoughts like I used to email. Maybe even more so!!! I'm aghast at that thought of such disloyalty!
Truly- I thought I was prepared for the length of my mortal life to just do email. I felt so up to date. so modern. so with it. Now it's like archaic to most. So I moved ahead to blogging but the mere thought of FaceBook or as the with it folks call it, FB, just turned me off. I was just so turned off with loss of privacy, sure of identity theft, some mugger getting your address and taking your coin purse, or a pervert writing dirty words and saying you did it, or someone telling something that you didn't want told and well....you see that I did have an element of distrust. more than a little for sure!!!
Then I got held in bondage. My Grandchildren would do something and I'd find out after the fact. Someone would casually mention to me about a mutual friend-- some wonderful news or some sad news of challenge going on and I would know nothing of it...Oh, that's right. You still don't do FaceBook? Then ransom demands started coming in....get on FaceBook/ IF you were on FaceBook you'd know etc. and then low blows like....If you want to see how Grace is doing in her championship dancing, Mom, then you need to get on FaceBook. No one does email. That's old stuff.
The gauntlet was thrown down. Alright I'll put my private life in jeopardy. I'll become so modern that I'll shock myself. That is what I did!!! I'm on FaceBook. Excuse me, I mean FB!!
This rambling is all about my agonizing trek to this century but I'm trying to lay some groundwork for my gift to my 75 year old friend Carol so you can understand how amazing it is. I'd been concerned about her. She needed more to do that would give her contact with people. Tonight when we left the Book Clubbing, I told her I had the greatest idea in the world and was giving her a gift. I asked her if she knew that Nikki's husband was having his last day of work. She told me no. I asked if she knew what he might do and she said no. I said he's going to school! I told her I'd learned it from FB (note lingo!). And I was going to set her up on FaceBook also!! We were both going to do it.!! She enthusiastically/emphatically said...Oh, no your aren't! I'm not doing that! I don't want to! Uh-uh. No! You are wasting your breath! I don't like that stuff! You can just stop right now talking about it! Surely she didn't really say...you are nuts!
So tomorrow I'm going over and get her going on her gift!!! I'm so excited to do this! She and I are stepping into a new world!! She'll be sending you a friend invite!!
My heart is all happy as I write this and hum..... (wonder if Carol is humming with the joy of FB in her future?)
Keep smiling, keep shiningKnowing you can always count on me, for sureThat's what friends are forFor good times and bad timesI'll be on your side forever moreThat's what friends are for
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