Thanksthinking

So here we are, on Thanksgiving eve, thinking about how nice it will be to not have to pay attention to the alarm clock for one extra day this week. And then we remember that we have grown so used to getting up before the clock alarm so as not to disturb the partner that we can't really enjoy the prospect of a late lie-in, even though the alarm will not be set.

And of course, there are the dogs across the street, who seem to be let out into the yard to give voice to their discontent as soon as the sun begins to rise. What annoys them, perhaps, is their electronic collars which respond in some semi-painful fashion when they cross the buried transmitter boundary wire in the front lawn.

So, to calm the wearied and over-active mind, I turn to Shoutcast.com, to Otto's Baroque on 1.FM while the rain begins. The windows remain open just a smidge because the predicted cold front has not yet pushed into the region. But just as I settle back and my eyelids begin to flutter toward total closure, I remember that the laundry has to be moved from the washer to the dryer.

While performing that minor chore, I think of the enormous distance we have come over the past two generations. From the crystal radio to the satellite radio. From the washtub to the washing machine. From the 8 mm black and white silent film camera to the high definition home theater digital video. From the evening newspaper to the web log. I'm thinking here only of the field of communications. All other fields, from astronomy to zoology have made similar discoveries, mainly because of new technologies.

It has taken enormous inventive, creative engineering and manufacturing skills achieve this kind of technical-mechanical progress.

Not only do these manifestations of creativity make life easier, on the whole they make it more enjoyable, interesting, educational, healthier and longer. Outrageous claim? Not really. The potential, at least, is there to stimulate the mind, the body and the spirit. At the most basic, we are vibrating cycles of impossibly small matter and impossibly huge energy, which is probably why I resonate with Otto's Baroque in such an elementally refreshing way.

So this Thanksgiving...