Past the Due Date: Part 1

“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” ~ Rick Warren

I went into the bank the other day which is not something I regularly do since the inception of online banking. The problem that took me there was my fault, making a payment to the wrong credit card. It was solved quickly and easily, on the spot. Seeing I was there, I asked about closing an account that we had had for 14 years, that we no longer used, and had a zero balance. Simple, I thought. WRONG! While it was accomplished eventually, it took two tellers and their supervisor to do it. Banking has changed so much and so quickly, that an account opened a mere 14 years ago was an anachronism, while a more serious error using the current banking praises was fixed quickly and easily.

My first mobile phone, from about 1990, was hardly mobile being the size and weight of a small briefcase. I kept it in the car for use in emergencies, but not turned on, as the battery life was short taking a good 12 hours to recharge. Basically, it was a mobile phone booth for use should I get stranded. Contrast that with today’s cell phones which are lightweight, small and easily carried. Their batteries last much longer when the phone is turned on and recharge quickly. You still see people who use today’s phones like they did back in the ‘90s, only using them ‘in emergencies’, or worse yet, actually leaving home without them in this day and age of no phone booths.

Are you old enough to remember life without air conditioning? I am. I remember very clearly getting out first A/C window unit and installing it in the window on the landing on the way up the stairs to the second floor. It thumped and bumped its way through the summer's heat, 24 hours a day, noisy, but wonderful as it gave us a modicum of relief letting us sleep through the night. Then came central air that was hard to regulate, and so was turned off and on again over the summer. We now have heating/air conditioning so efficient that the smart thermostats just need to be set at the desired temperature and the furnace or the A/C responds as needed. Yet, there are still people who turn it ‘off’ and ‘on’ daily, unwilling to trust the new technology.

I’m sure there are other examples of when we have refused to move on, to leave behind what was, to embrace what now is. It isn’t that the past was bad. Far from it. What we have today, will be the past 25 years from now. What is problematical is our desire to cling to what was, what is the trusted, and the familiar. To paraphrase the quote about, we need to move on, reflecting what our past as taught us, while embracing the present.

It is impossible to do both: cling to the past and live in the present. Which do you choose: life or death?

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