Like most of the midwest we endured severe high winds yesterday. So when I got home last night and realized that the internet wasn't working I assumed it was weather related. Fortunately it wasn't. It was just a small problem here at home that was easily corrected. But it took me a few tense minutes to figure it out.
Until it was corrected I had a bad case of "what-am-I-gonna-do?" How will I publish my blog? What about the online lesson I have scheduled for later in the morning? Like many, the internet is a vital part of the way I conduct business. It's also a major source of entertainment for me. Watching videos on YouTube is my cookie at the end of the day. Things were not normal and I didn't like it at all.
I thought about how dependent I had become on a technology that didn't even exist a generation ago. As the technology advances I find the new replacing the old. I will soon follow in the footsteps of many of my friends and disconnect my landline. I haven't used that phone in two years. Right now it simply intercepts calls from advertisers and politicians. I also have a toll-free (800) number for the convenience of my clients. I've had it for over 25 years. But no one pays for long-distance any more, so why bother? It's on all of my advertising so it will take a year or two to turn it off, but its days are numbered.
I could cite a variety of other examples and I'm sure you can too. But as I considered all of this in the wake of the solved problem, it occurred to me that my affection for classical guitar and the music that is available to me to play is a stark contrast to the technology that I enjoy. While other musicians plug in their instruments to alter and enhance the sounds and then use those new sounds to make music, I plod along content to create music on a wooden box with six nylon strings. No extra cords, boxes, or amplifiers required. The sound is subtly altered only by the way I strike the strings.
In popular music the only thing constant is change. There is the ongoing search for something new, exciting, novel, and perhaps even relevant. But in my world the search is for beauty. And beauty is always exciting and relevant. I once played some music by Vivaldi in the midst of a pop music extravaganza as an interlude. The audience was completely silent as I played and then very generous with their applause. Not because I was that good, but because Vivaldi was.
So I use technology to enhance my ability to work efficiently. But at the heart of this work is centuries old music played on an instrument that was invented in ancient Mesopotamia. (Some of my students think that I was a witness to that event.) This music can be boring to some, but I find it endlessly fascinating and it balances out the fast-paced changes of this modern world.