PROGRESS
I can accept that with approaching senility some of my skills and knowledge must atrophy, but it really gravels my craw that the many skills and much knowledge that I continue to possess in abundance have become obsolete.
I think I know now how those making buggy whips must have felt as they contemplated the coming of the automoble. They retained the skills and the knowledge; they just didn't have the buggies.
Certainly it makes sense to get rid of old stuff that isn't needed anymore, but it also makes sense to not fix what ain't broken, especially when the changes leave old country boys like me confused and disoriented.
I feel somehow betrayed, as if the world had changed some time ago while I was nodding off. The new terms are a tad more descriptive, although one would have to be fairly obtuse to need an explanation of the old terms. The new terms are of course completely ungrammatical.
It's bad enough that arbitrary verbal changes have left much of my vocabulary obsolete, but technology has done the same to my hard-won skills, and I do mean hard-won.
I suppose there are worse reasons for retaining obsolete knowledge than enjoying the ego trip of having it. Polishing the ol ego is fun, and it doesn't make acid rain or hurt the ozone. I am glad that I know so many things that have become obsolete, and now I find that at my age, the same has become of me.
