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W
e e k l y F
e a t u r e P a g e
Links to archived past pages on lower left
The contents of the “Weekly Feature” page are provided
to you for your entertainment, amusement, and perhaps information.
Here you may find articles of interest, pictures, historical information
on the Club, or whatever shuffles to the top of the pile on our
desk. The only defined characteristic of this space is that we
will make every effort to change/replace it around the middle of
each week. Thank you for visiting, and please stop by again. Click
on any photo to see it larger in a separate window. |
The Mystery of it All
It’s just remarkable, this techno-age we live in. We know exactly what
is going on, the whole world over, moments after each newsworthy event. We’re
all connected, phones on our hips, ears to the radio, eyes to the flat-screen,
minds to the computer. And the line has become very indistinct, that imaginary
line that separates your phone service from your internet service. Smart phones,
they’re called. The WWW, right there in your pocket, with all your e-mail,
social networks, and streaming video of everything from the ridiculous to the
sublime. Shop, bid, post, surf, learn, communicate, navigate, right from your
shirt pocket. Too late for the discussion of whether we needed all that or not….it’s
here, and it’s here to stay. And for the most part, it works well, too,
if you accept the premise that we need all that. I suppose we all feel a little
better, or wiser, or more current, when we’re on top of the news. A skeptic
might conclude that we all secretly wish to get that information just a bit sooner
than our associates, thus cloaking ourselves with an aura of superiority, however
temporary it may be. Human Nature is a little funny that way, but I prefer to
give us the benefit of the doubt and just go with the self-improvement theory.
Hard to find fault with such a noble aspiration as that. After all, it’s
our ability to use tools that sets us apart from our tree dwelling ancestors,
isn’t it?
The one critical shortcoming of all this information
at our fingertips, seems to be related to the timeline. We can research
or call up literally anything
from the past, we can watch present events or stories the moment they take
place, but the whole picture starts to get really fuzzy, really quickly,
when we try
to peer into the future. Try to jump that clock ahead just a few minutes,
or days, or weeks, and suddenly we find ourselves moved from the realm
of hard
data, into the murky world of what-if’s, where there are just too many unknowns
and variables. Lord knows, we try. The guys on Wall Street, the political pundits,
even Joe Six-pack trying to decide when to fill his gas tank, we all try to outsmart
the future, but it’s often a fool’s game. It might be a bad quarterly
report, a skeleton leaping out of Newt’s closet, or some suit in a corner
office at “Big Oil”, hearing a rumor about a leaky valve somewhere,
and BAM, all the predictions are right out the window. Sorry, Joe, there’s
no “App” for that, no matter how hard you push the crystal ball
icon on your smart-phone.
Still, in spite of the limitations of technology,
the human condition is forward-looking by nature. When all of the gadgets
fail us, we will turn
to more traditional
methods to satisfy our instinct to peer around that corner into the future.
Some still buy the Farmer’s Almanac, some still plant crops by the
phase of the moon, and on February 2nd, the rest of us wait in breathless
anticipation
to note the annual appearance and behavior of a time-honored rodent in
a little town in Pennsylvania. Upon his furry shoulders rest the hopes
and dreams of all
who are weary of winter and lusting for the promise of spring.
As all of us here at the MMOGTA Publishing Compound
wait for the results to come in, we leave you with just one photo to
illustrate just how unpredictable
life
can be. Groundhog’s Day 2012 brings temps in the 40 degree range, and a
landscape free of snow. This photo from exactly one year ago should serve to
remind us that it surely could be worse !
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