Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

I’ve noticed a recent trend with professional people walking to their office. They’re dragging their briefcase behind them. On wheels.

What’s up with that?

It wasn’t too long ago that any given businessman or businesswoman on the street was carrying a leather clad briefcase at their side. Inside held all the secrets of the their profession; paperwork about the next deal, a portfolio displaying their abilities, the proposal for the big meeting. Then of course, laptop computers became all the rage, so the hard cased briefcase gave way to the soft-sided carrying bag which was a little larger than the briefcase but still had that “professional” appearance to it. Now everyone seems to be using their airline carry-on luggage to transport their computers and paperwork back and forth to the office. There they are, wheeled suitcase behind them to create yet another obstacle on the sidewalk, bumping along over the cracks in the concrete.

When did people become so lazy that they couldn’t carry their own briefcase?

I find it hard to believe that the laptops of today are heavier than the laptops of five years ago when people actually carried them. You’re not going to convince me of otherwise, because as technology becomes more popular and more affordable, it also makes strides in the direction of miniaturization. And with all this technology at our fingertips, there should be less paperwork, handouts, etc. to cart around in your briefcase, right?

So why have people become so lazy that it’s too much of an effort to carry their own briefcase?

I won’t drag my luggage through an airport by its wheels, let alone drag it to work. Admittedly I drive Earl crazy when we’re traveling, because I insist on actually carrying our luggage instead using the built in wheels that were made for nothing larger than a Hot Wheels car. He says I’m nuts. I prefer “eccentric”, but “nuts” works for me as well.

At least I’m not lazy.

I can’t believe that today I’m reading another news article about a fatal school shooting in our country. My thoughts are with the family of those affected at the small school in Tennessee.

What has happened to our schools? If any place should be safe for children outside of the home, it’s their school. This didn’t happen at a big, crowded school in a seedy neighborhood in a large city. No, this shooting took place at a relatively rural area of Tennessee. What is going on?

I graduated from school almost 20 years ago and I know much has changed during that time. Students have access to more information than ever before, via the internet, cell phones, instant messenger, all of it. Heck, as a student I was very excited when the school received 30 donated televisions, all black and white, so that we could have a “multimedia” experience in the classroom. The most violent video game that I remember from my teenage years was maybe Frogger and that was because the large pixels on the screen that vaguely resembled a frog went “splat” when a vaguely shaped truck ran over it. Today there’s video games featuring a huge amount of violence including drive by shootings, rapes, robbery… is this really necessary?

Sometimes I wonder if not much has changed after all. Maybe I was sheltered. Perhaps I never had access to violent games, movies, etc. of my generation so that’s why I never had the urge to shoot anyone at school. If that’s the case, then that’s just more testimony to the fact that my parents did a great job raising my sister and I.

In the past, I’ve joked that school violence can be blamed on photocopiers. With the departure of the old “ditto machines” (remember handouts with purple ink?), teachers and students are no longer getting high on the fumes. Bring back the ditto machines!

If it were only that simple.