To Make a Long Story Short
Copyright© 2021 by Wayzgoose
On Understanding Your Environment
Written in 1973, never published
©2022 Elder Road Books
WHERE I WORK as a production manager, I am generally considered patient and easy to get along with. I am a person who understands people; a person who does not lose his temper. Many people in our world today find this difficult. We are a mechanized society because machines are easy to work with. People are difficult.
On this I take issue with society.
I can understand people because people are fallible: just like me. I accept that, and can be patient about it. Even my wife thinks I’m patient when she wakes me up at 3:00 a.m. to ask me why she can’t sleep. I understand that because of some deep-seated psychological strain that built up during the day she is unable to sleep. I understand that some people can’t sleep when a dog barks—three miles away. I understand that some people can’t sleep simply because they know the alarm is going to ring at 7:00 in the morning. People, I understand.
But machines, I don’t understand.
Machines are not supposed to be fallible.
I don’t understand why fifty miles of tape is wrapped around the inside of my cassette recorder. I don’t understand why the hot water in the radiators is cold. I don’t understand why the vacuum cleaner sounds like it has an advanced case of lung cancer. I don’t understand why the toilet won’t flush in the middle of January. And I don’t understand why the car won’t start at 7:30 when I have a breakfast meeting at 8:00.
Speak to me car!
Did you have a bad night last night? Didn’t sleep? Do you have a cold in your carburetor? Are you tense? Irritable? Are you rebelling against the establishment? Why can’t I understand you?
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