This morning I was out the door before 4am, driving a son to the airport for yet another adventure (for him). Due to various reasons, I ran out the door in somewhat of a hurry, jumped in the car and off we went into the dark morning. We were almost to the airport when I realized two things. One, I had forgotten to grab my cell phone on the way out the door. Second, because it was dark and I'm somewhat eyesight challenged in the dark I didn't want to take my eyes off the road, so didn't go through the process of finding the right icon to press on the screen of my relatively new car to get the GPS map up. So I wasn't following along with GPS.
Why is this important?
First, I never go anywhere anymore without my phone. It's my office and stay-in-touch with people device. It's got a GPS system in case I need it. I can take photos. If I was in an accident, I could contact someone asap. If I needed to look something up, I could do it right away. So for a brief moment, I had a flash of consternation.
What if my son left something in the car and needed it before he got on the plane? What if something happened on my way home? What if my husband needed to get in touch with me? What if this and what if that?
And also, it's so much easier to remember where turns are if the GPS is on and you can follow along. Or, if you don't know where you're going, you can plug in your destination and get step by step directions. This morning, I knew where I was going, but everything looks different in the dark and it would have been helpful to be able to glance at the map and see how many more streets until the one I needed. So I had a touch of consternation about that as well.
And then what?
I smiled! This was a flashback to when I got my driver's license way back before cell phones and GPS existed. I actually still carry an atlas in my car and if I really needed to figure out where I was or where I needed to be, I could have pulled over, pulled out the maps and figured it out. I haven't lost my ability to read maps!
And as for the phone, well, if I changed my route home and went through the center of town instead of the back roads I took going to the airport, if anything happened on my way home, I'd be in a busier place where I'd be able to find help. As for anything else? Who could possible need me at 4am?
So I turned up the radio, sang along to Bohemian Rhapsody which happened to be playing, opened the window a bit, and enjoyed the ride.
So what's the bottom line?
We have come to rely on technology for many things, but guess what. If we didn't have it for whatever reason, those of us who grew up without it would figure things out. Would things be as easy as they are with technology? No they wouldn't. We'd have to think more and pay more attention. The way we used to.
And we'd adapt.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If you got this far, thanks for reading and you'll be happy to know I made it home safely, walked in the door and immediately went to get my phone!
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