The Happy Luddite

Current Reading: The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
Marching as to War, by Pierre Burton

Inspirational Quote: "Phone. Fax. E-mail, voice-mail, instant messaging. Blogs, texting, tweeting, social networking... Technology has brought us so many ways to communicate! Now we just need something worthwhile to say to each-other." -- Me (Ulysses).

Telemachus plays rep hockey, which means we spend a lot of time hunting down arenas in obscure communities in our area of Ontario. As a consequence I and my fellow hockey-parents spend a lot of time in those communities waiting for the game to start, or the zamboni to finish resurfacing the ice. During this waiting time, I do what I always do: I read.

The other day, during the second intermission, I looked up from a passage where Jason Bourne acts confused and violent. To my right, a woman was chatting rather animatedly on her cellphone. To my left, another woman was bent intently over her Blackberry, thumbs flying. An eight-year-old, sister to one of the other players, was dialling up something on her i-Pod while a teenager near her frantically pushed the buttons on his PSP. I looked down at my book, originally published in 1980 on cheap newsprint and felt pathetically out of the high-tech loop.

Strangely enough, I'm happy with that.