Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 11/14/06, Rob <becida AT comcast.net> wrote:
> The talk about oil, better gas mileage and the hope of technology to
> get us by in the future got me to thinking.
Rob's point about the changes in his lifetime are thought provoking,
but the changes in my grandparents' lifetimes were even more profound.
Both my grandmothers grew up when the only way to get around locally
was by horse. Interestingly, one of them immediately adopted cars when
they came out and in her later years drove all over the US (she did a
lot of flying too and went to her sister Dolly's funeral in a private
plane that developed engine problems and had to be landed on a highway
somewhere in Texas -- no, she wasn't the pilot). They both seemed to
adopt new technology with little pain. My parents have been the same
way: just for example, they learned to program their VCR before I even
had one.

I agree that technology is absolutely necessary. The downside is that
we assume that the energy supplies and political stability that have
made it all possible and apparently easy have also obscured the fact
that many people would be in a serious world of hurt if any
substantial part of it failed suddenly. We have lost the skills to
manage in the event of interruptions.

And that will likely cause a lot of pain in the future.

Marie