It’s no secret that life has become increasingly frenetic, with new ways to communicate continually popping up. Do we really have more to say, or merely more opportunities to say it? Thoughts were once celebrated for the way they were expressed as much as for the content within. Now it’s about speed. Did technology purposefully make things go faster to fit the pace of our lives, or is our endless motion an attempt to justify what we thought we needed to have?
Speed does not always serve us well. In The Maltese Falcon, private eye Sam Spade is advised by the Fat Man to take his time deciding how to deal with the crime he’s uncovered. The bad guy warns our hero, “In the heat of action, men are likely to forget where their best interests lie.” Or the best words to use. Glancing at the TV news last night, I caught an image on the screen of a group of shirtless firemen posed in a group. The news caption read, “NYC’s finest bear it all for calendar.” If that was the story, they should have been dressed like grizzlies. Somebody’s got to set the standard here. If major networks keep blowing off homonyms, the next thing you know, “Where you at?” is considered a real sentence.
On the train home the other day, the woman in the seat ahead of me was telling her travel companion that a guy who asked her to dance at a singles event said he almost didn’t approach her because she looked like the bookworn type. How worn? I wondered. Instead of mentioning that the word she was looking for was ‘bookworm’, her companion said he often mistakes women for being bookworns also. Proving once again that a major cause of marriage is avoidance of singles dances.
As far as the speed of life goes, it’s amazing how much the wind shifted in just one generation. Compare the TV shows of my childhood, Romper Room and Captain Kangaroo, to my children’s early experience with Sesame Street and The Electric Company. I had the mellow rambling of Do-Bee and Mr. Green Jeans, while my kids saw vignettes and video bits in rapid-fire succession – ideas, images, alphabet letters, numbers. No wonder they had the smoother segue to iPhones and Blackberrys and texting what they’re doing thisverymoment at the speed of light. But do you know what’s wrong with instant gratification? Pretty soon, it’s just not fast enough.
The generation that considers my children their elders will move even faster. I visited Daughter’s classroom earlier this week during story time, and marveled at her command of a room filled with so much independent action. She teaches a group of special needs children aged six to eight, students who respond well to her stimulus junkie yet calming demeanor. After the story was read, it was time for free play until the buses were called. One boy brought the anatomically correct doll he was playing with over to Daughter and me and said proudly, “Look! You can see his little penis.” “That’s right,” Daughter said, nodding approval. At which point another boy piped up with, “And you can see his tentacles, too!” Now that’s something that (a) bears (b) bares repeating.
Os Gemeos, the identical twin Brazilian graffiti artists, have been commissioned to paint over the Keith Haring tribute mural at Houston and Bowery. Check out their progress in Daughter’s Featured Fotos
Answer: (a) bears