Ash trays on the coffee table.
Rotary telephones.
The card catalog.
An LP.
Things that once seemed perfectly normal can–with the passage of time–become completely foreign.
They belong to a world that has ceased to exist.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have value.
Some do. Others, not so much.
There’s pleasure in a long draw on a cigarette. There’s also cancer.
The rotary phone slows us down but it also stops us from entering digits into an automated system.
The card catalog… never mind.
There are trade offs.
Wisdom consists in figuring out those things from worlds seemingly long past that retain value.
The things that are, ironically, good for us–even though they’re uncomfortable or slow.
Jeff Gissing 