Lazy

Hasn't the world become ever so lazy? Technology, to a large degree. serves as a convenient smoke screen for our creeping lassitude. When I was a kid you had to get up off the couch and physically change the channel on the television if you wished to view something different...and we had maybe eight channel choices. It was like a third world country (and we thought this exemplified diversified and interesting choice). Now one may languish like an indulgent pasha all the live long day, switching between hundreds of channels, utilizing only a lone digit on a hand to grant gratification. No wonder 76.2% of the country is overweight.

I laugh when I see those commercials on television for the robotic vacuum cleaners that resemble oblique disks creeping across freshly glistened hardwood floors. A few indulgent claps from the house master and this diligent floor sweeper hunts in search of errant dust bunnies. What will the version that scrubs the toilet look like? Try and imagine for it's day is nigh, I guarantee it. I'm seeing toilet cleaner/martial aid (dual use) and in short order, you'll see it on QVC.

As a youngster, the notion of a "Jetson" society seemed intriguing. No more hard labor--you had a maid robot (named Rosie, preferably) and a push of a button would deliver a meal, clean your dishes, dress you in coordinated colors and assume every tedious chore one faces in daily life; You'd never had to learn to parallel park a car for your vehicle would suddenly compact into a briefcase once you arrived at your destination; You wouldn't have to walk anywhere for moving walkways transported you from the folding vehicle/briefcase to your work desk where always you could kick up his heels on your desk and nap because technology was doing your job for you. Why not embrace modernized change? Simplifly life with each generation, right?

You may be wondering what the catalyst for tonight's topic might be, although as usual I have let it snowball to a diatribe. There was a commercial on television last night for a new form of birth control. Hollaback Girl (who is visiting this week) repeated the tagline to herself with that brilliant "WTF?" irony in her voice. I thought she said "Gerbil birth control."

"Jesus," I said to her, "gerbil's have birth control issues now?"

The actual product was for CHEWABLE birth control (shades of Flintstone vitamins!)

In the same vein of progress, I flashed on what the future could be for young women handling their own reproductive issues. And like an envious older generation I thought, "Well, in my day, a girl had to learn how to put a diaphragm in correctly and that required more skill than merely chewing. There was a certain technique to folding that thing like a taco and getting it in place properly. You young 'uns don't realize the kinds of contortions a girl had to go through to get that freaking thing in just right."

I'd go on about this all night, but hell, I'm too lazy.