Neither Motorola nor RoboCop

I was walking home last night when I passed a woman who was deep in conversation with herself. My first thought was to ignore her, but the reason why is what bothers me.

In the old days, I would have ignored her because she was ding-bat crazy and that is the way that I deal with those people most of the time. Until I cross the street, then I marvel in their out-there beauty and freedom. When I am face to face though, I usually ignore them and try to be invisible. Last thing I need is to be engaged in conversation with Morzar the flying fireman... again.

Anyway, last night when I encountered this woman carrying on to herself, as I said, I ignored her. My knee jerk reaction was that she was on one of those bluetooth earpieces for her phone. As I got a safe distance from her, I began to watch her. This woman had no earpiece, no phone. She had invented the damn phone and earpiece long ago (along with a pepperoni pizza flavored pudding/deodorant) and I would be willing to say that she had been using them since then... in her world.

Here is my point. I have slowly come to terms with technology advancing us forward, but I have long recommended that while we vault forward we still look out the window and notice the things we are flying by that may be marching toward extinction. The dial tone or the busy signal for instance, I long for their song. Random pictures developed on that roll that truly capture the moment right before the moment that you wanted to catch. Eyes closed, mouths open, hair a mess... Today, those are deleted right from the camera. Remember when you could snap a pencil and pull the whole lead right out in one big shaft... or make it look rubber by wiggling it the right way. Do you even have a pencil in your house now?

I am making a stand, as I so often do. This one will not waiver, I will not compromise in this. I will not allow technology to take away the beauty of the crazy person on the street talking to themselves, narrator to their own universe. To the outside world they pose a threat to societies normalcy, to their inside world they rule in a way few do. They are at once along for the ride and strangely in control. Pure, beautiful, true.

I can live with the fact that businessman Joe needs to talk loudly on the train to someone that is in his ear, because he just doesn't have enough hours in the day to maintain his importance. Seriously, I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is that scene becoming so commonplace that no one notices (weather they like it or not) the stumbling sidewalk wonder that is the crazy man/woman lost in their world, spewing nonsense, and ignoring the norm. That is human, and neither Motorola nor RoboCop will take that from me. This I pledge.

If only there was some way to patch the crazy mans banter into businessman Joes ear. I would love to write about that in pencil on the wall of my corner phone booth, take a picture of it, have it developed and put it in the mail, addressed to you. Because I think you might understand.