A Child of the Modern Age

As a student of history, I confess to a fascination with past events, cultures and individuals. So my second favourite fantasy invention (after a Star Trek transporter) would be a time machine. There are so many places and past times that I would love to visit. I emphasize the ‘visit’ aspect. Sort of like a camping trip into the remote mountains where you’re going for the scenery and the ‘experience’ knowing the living conditions and food will be primitive and the only ‘luxuries’ (like soap and advil) are those you bring with you. In other words, the past may be fun to visit, but I’m so grateful to live in an era of indoor plumbing, electricity, refrigeration and computers…

I came to this conclusion while building a set of shelves for my study today. Despite being pre-fabricated so that a chimpanzee should be able to do it blindfolded, it took me five hours of sweating, swearing and labouring and one gash on each arm before the darn thing was assembled (and even now, the top shelf is backwards). Knowing that in almost any previous century my hovel would have been entirely furnished by what I could make with my own hands, I'm so very happy to be part of this great modern age of consumer extravagance.

The point is even more poignant because my reason for building this shelving unit was so that I could finally set up the air conditioning unit I bought over 2 years ago. So now I can sit in my perfectly air-conditioned room, blogging away, with instant access to the world’s largest information base over the internet, totally oblivious to the scorching heat outside!

Gods, but it’s good to be alive in the 21^st Century!!