Comments on the opening paragraphs of a recent column in The Irish Times by Áine Ryan and three original joke/poems
“It is a sunny Sunday afternoon and I’ve just parked up at Westport Quay for my daily foray into fresh air. I call these constitutionals my “mental health walks”, with any benefit to my aging body a bonus. On this particular occasion though there is an existential crisis even before I’ve exited my car.
.Goddammit’ I’m suddenly saying, as I rifle through my handbag. ‘I’ve forgotten my mobile phone.’
‘I can’t go for my walk,’ I utter to the distressed person in my vanity mirror.
‘You could drive home and get it,’ she says back, helpfully.”
This article made me think of my own conflicted relationship with technology. Of course, I rely on it like almost everyone in the modern world, but it is often a source of frustration as much as support. Sometimes silence and nature are better than the Internet, movies, TV, and music.
I have two phones, a flip phone and a smart phone, but have not really used the smart phone in some time. Of course we have all seen some people in public using smart phones almost compulsively.
“Mandates” by yours truly
“Do you agree with the mandates?”
“I prefer dates with women. Everyone is different.”
“Advice” by yours truly
“Instead of contracting syphilis, suffer less. Don’t digress.”
“Yes…yes.”
“Choice” by yours truly
“You have been given a choice: priest or pariah. What is your desire?”
“Just let me out of this mire.”
“First, control your fire.”
“Do you think someone would hire?”
“Ehh.”