Lost in Orange | Page 39

Embracing  Technology       All  of  you  young  whippersnappers  should  see     that,  though  old,  I  embrace  technology,     like  scissors,  snipping  off  the  scarlet  top   of  a  box  of  pills  I’m  about  to  pop,   their  thin  graceful  legs,  ballerina-­‐like,   scissoring  through  the  plastic,  exactly  right,     or  the  telephone,  mine  still  on  both  wall   and  desk,  a  choice  of  two  from  which  to  call,   instead  of  wireless  toys  carried  around   so  you  can  bother  me  by  talking  loud,     or  the  radio,  still  a  magic  box,   emitting  music  or  the  human  vox,   in  ways,  God  knows,  mysterious  to  me,   with  or  without  electricity,     such  a  wonder,  so  new,  that  Thurber’s  mom   always  kept  the  wires  plugged  in,  always  “on,”   to  keep  the  current  from  dribbling  away,   a  common  superstition,  in  her  day,     or,  going  back  to  the  first  inventions,   trying  to  think  up  the  word  for  “bison,”     our  frightened  forebears  huddled  round  the  fire,   safe  from  mammoth  or  saber-­‐tooth  ti