Be Kind

With the rise of technology, many aspects of our lives are being altered in ways that seem unlikely to revert in the near future. For instance, as I was growing up, when I met someone from far away who I was interested in getting to know better, I would get their phone number and mailing address. Of course no one gets somebody’s mailing address anymore, and it seems unlikely that they are going to start again soon.

This morning I was cleaning up my room and, as I was throwing out some junk, saw a Blockbuster Video receipt with the following inscribed thereon:

“BE KIND,
RETURN ON TIME”

Seeing that actually surprised me because for my whole life the message from video stores has been

“BE KIND,
PLEASE REWIND.”

It is still an great public service to encourage niceness, but the former mantra of video rentals is, of course, no longer up to date. We no longer have anything to rewind (at least not in the literal sense). There you have it, one more institution out the window. It is kind of sad really, but at least I’ll always have the memories so that I can one day be that crotchety old man who complains to the kids and grandkids about how things were different and better when I was young.