A Farewell to Words

It appears that blogs are becoming a things of the past. In fact, my son told me that over 6 years ago when I first started blogging at the urging of my publisher.  Now the women writers group I've belonged to for several years has ended their blogsite, too.   Nobody cares what someone else thinks anymore.  Our world is turning to visuals--pops of color, silly videos, photos.  If you can't say what you need to say in 10 words of less, no one listens.  Our world of instant everything has shortened our attention spans to almost nothing.  Just go into any kindergarten class in the nation and you will see where the future of our world is heading.

It's ironic that my first book, "The Peaks at the Edge of the World" depicted a future where the written word is obsolete and no one reads "old fashioned" books anymore.  Books are frowned on and eventually banned altogether.  Everything is on a household terminal in the form of pictures and the spoken word.  This opens the door for anyone in power who says something to go back and deny it was said.  There is no written record, and digital records are easy to change. Thus, it's simple to change history to meet any slant or bias that has moved into the limelight.  Sound familiar?

Yes, the scary part is that many of us see it happening in our world already.  The words of Simon and Garfunkel in "The Sounds of Silence" have become prophetic:  "People talking without speaking" is happening all around us, as everyone is tied to their smart phones, texting.  I know.  I do it, too.  If I want to get hold of any person under 40, the only way is to text them.  Hardly anyone answers voicemails anymore.

Today is my 70th birthday.  Looking back on my life, I think the years between 40 and 60 were the best.  It's been downhill ever since.  And the way our world is going, I fervently hope that I don't live past 80.  I don't want to end up a vegetable with Alzheimer's like my mother did. 

In my first book, there were a few rebels who held out and collected and read books, but the were always in danger of being discovered and punished.  If I am forced to live into an age like that, I know I will be one of those "Rebel Readers."