Surrender and learn
I recently called on my plumber mate, Gus, to find him trying to
make sense of an SMS message on his mobile phone. He was eventually
able to read the message, and then set about trying to send a reply.
In a surge of frustration and angry mutterings, he gave up and threw
the phone through the open window of his ute. He had a fair bit to
say about the latest technology, “which no right-minded person could
possibly understand”.
“Why don’t we go back to the old days, when everyone competed on
the same footing?” he asked.
I told him that was not going to happen; and that he ought to stop
fighting progress and take lessons from someone who knew what he or
she was doing. But suggesting to Gus that he give up was like showing
a red rag to a bull. I might just as well have suggested that George
W Bush give up and move out of Iraq.
Much later, when spirits were not so high, I helped unload the ute
at the shed and, again, suggested that Gus take some tutelage. Not
high-level IT, of course, but some basic procedures that might help
him operate his business a touch easier.
Naturally, he hit me with the “time” excuse, and a couple of others,
before we both called it quits. Still calm enough to be civil, we
opened the fridge for a drink and a chat.
While we were solving such world problems as the Palestinian leadership
post-Yasser, Gus’s 15-year-old son, Tom, shuffled into the shed to
see what we were up to.
In reality, his mother had kicked him out of the lounge, where he
had been playing the latest video games. She had seen enough of him
for the morning, and had heard enough of the games’ electronic pings.
Meanwhile, his mobile started to beep away with an incoming SMS message.
With his left thumb, he simply pressed out his reply and sent it as
he laughed contentedly.
Gus looked across at me, scowled, and shook his head. I know he
hates it when I’m right. I thought it best to depart and so headed
into the kitchen, where coffee and cake were the order of the day.
No doubt we can learn a lot from our kids in this modern age. It
was different in my time. It was the older people who were said to
be wise from experience, listened to, and respected. They had had
years of learning and observation, which had made them able to make
sound decisions and judgments about almost anything life could throw
at them.
Then came the modern age, with its IT and electronic wizardry. It’s
not over yet, either. One can only guess at where the next decade
will take us in such rapidly developing fields.
I watched as Gus sat next to Tom and absorbed his demonstration
of how to send SMS messages. It was good to see Tom’s smile, too,
as he emerged pushing $5 into his top pocket.
It reminded me of the verses in Matthew 18, in which Jesus says:
“Unless you become like little children you will not enter the Kingdom.”
It certainly seemed true of the IT kingdom.
I hope the kids at your place are cheap teachers.
