On this day in 1812, Britain, unaware that America had declared war against it five days earlier, rescinded its policy on neutral shipping, a major issue of contention between the two countries. (Today's Highlights in History, JJC newspaper)
This is not a history lesson of what eventually led to the War of 1812, but perhaps a lesson in communication.
It took nearly six weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ships were still sailing by wind power. The telegraph had yet to be invented so the only means of communicating with each other was either by actual word of mouth, or a letter.
Maybe the ships tag-teamed across the ocean, tossing their bags of mail from one ship to the other. I really have no idea, but I would certainly have had to write down whatever the message was because in six weeks, I would have forgotten what I was supposed to tell the recipient.
From the end of that war until the present, astronomical progress has been made in means of communication. Instant communication is at our fingertips. We can talk, text, twit and Snapchat with anyone we please, at anytime we please and the message is delivered instantly.
Growing up, the first instant thing I knew about was tea. Back then, I thought the stuff was great. No longer was it necessary to brew real tea leaves to make a glass of ice tea. Now, I much prefer the real thing. The next instant item was mashed potatoes....and, well......with enough salt, pepper and butter.....anything will taste better.
It is a wonderful thing to be able to see a new baby or some other good news instantly. Families can keep in touch even if there are thousands of miles between them. But, when anger raises its ugly head, it is too bad there isn't an instant off function that would override the message. This would give people a cooling off period, a time to reflect, before they put a hateful, hurtful message out for all to see. It takes a lot of energy to stay mad and a time out session would maybe let them realize being mean just isn't worth it. If anger could only be communicated face to face, there would be a lot more "happy" floating around. Hopefully, some technological communication wizard is working on a bliss button.
Yes, we live an instant life. I'm still waiting for the instant weight loss though, because the only way I'm going to lose 20 pounds overnight is if my leg falls off in my sleep.
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