Sunday, January 8, 2012

problems

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News that caught my eye:

-- Sometimes life seems to impose ungainly problems -- as for example the young man in Vietnam who had a 198 lb. tumor removed from his leg. The tumor outweighed the man to whom it was attached ... and sometimes problems can be like that ... big, crippling, overwhelming. But it is curious: The biggest and bestest problems get treated for free where the lesser problems, which themselves can be enormous, go begging. Where and how anyone draws the line -- attends to the one and ignores the other -- is a curious matter.

-- Wireless companies are scrambling as one of their biggest money makers -- texting messages -- comes under assault by those tired of offering up the "pure profit" fees companies charge find other, cheaper ways to communicate (if that's the word) with friends. If my kids are any example, texting is close to being a god-given necessity and charging for it is as if someone made them pay for the air they breathe. Of course it is not the young people alone who are rebelling: Parents who often foot the bill are getting crabby too. Imagining that texting draws people closer together is off my comprehension charts. As far as I can see, the 'social' networking devices of today only serve to underscore and enlarge the loneliness and anti-social divisions of these times. I suppose that's old-fart talk ... but I would argue there is a lot of evidence to support it.
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2 comments:

  1. That big tumor would be a drag.

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  2. Imagining that texting draws people closer together is off my comprehension charts.

    Picture this. You are an observer in a job training session. One of the young trainees is busy texting his girl friend several miles away. At that moment - Is he closer to the girl friend or closer to the trainers?

    Had that been in pre-texting days if he were writingI-Love-You on a Hallmark card who would he have been closer to at that moment?

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