Playing Fair and Being Kind

Which (the title) has very little to do with anything I want to discuss today. It just sounds profound to utter things like this. “With each new solution, one can expect a new set of problems”. “Every solution creates its own problems”. Did you know that the developer of the first freeway knew from the beginning that each new road would be obsolete within a year or two? The minute he laid down the first line on the drawing he knew it would not be a solution, only a stepping stone to more and more problems in a long string of related failed solutions. He practiced finding “every new solution has a new set of problems”.
That brilliant urban planner/designer knew in 1947, as he was scribbling conceptual highways on maps, what it took others 3/4’s of a century to finally conclude with years of graphs and diagrams. “If you build it they will come”.
https://www.vox.com/2014/10/23/6994159/traffic-roads-induced-demand

Oh, but this is not what I came to talk about today. (At this point my old brain has lost track of what it was I came here to talk about.) Ah, yes. I want to discuss a robo-call I just got. Here goes.

The phone rang and I jumped to see what the caller ID said. To see if it was a call I wanted to take. The digital readout on the phone is pooched a bit so it is almost impossible to read. What I could read said “…survey”. I let it ring and answer and then hang up. But immediately I regretted that I did not at least see if there was a human on the other end of the line who may need a little joy in their life today. I imagined calling back to repair the social damage I’d wrought. This is a skill I have, almost a super power to entertain my self. My imagination is my super power. Let’s go further with this. The phone has the caller ID for a “….survey”. I’m bereft at the thought that I may have missed an opportunity to lift someone’s spirits ever so slightly today. I call the number on the screen. (An impossibility since there is no number and if there were I wouldn’t be able to read it since the digits are pooched.)

I track down the caller and I appologize for being uninvolved in their situation. I wonder if there is something I can do for them. They are relieved that I returned the call. “Yes”, says the survey person, “There is something I’d like to talk to you about.” “Is this about Trump?”, I ask. “No”, he says. “I could never do that. Regarding him what is there left to say?” “O.K.”, I respond. “Let me in on what you want to talk about.” He begins a discussion that has depth to it. The man’s voice on the other end of the line is steady and rich in timber, deep, controlled, and quite animated. We talk for nearly twenty minutes when I hear the slight beep of the call-waiting feature on my phone. I’m aghast! This can’t be! I’m enjoying this conversation but now I am going to be faced with a new set of problems. If I beg off this conversation in order to answer the call-waiting I will be discounting the previous decision I’d made to seek out this person to relieve the emotional grief I’d exhibited earlier when I didn’t answer the phone initially. And, if I don’t pick up the call waiting I will have to wonder who is on the other line needing to speak with me. What to do?
I elect to pretend that the call is breaking up and smoothly press the flash button while garbling my words as to not insult the man. It works! I am now on another line with whomever. I say, “helloo…”. No answer. What!!! There is a presence on the other end of the line but it isn’t easily identifiable. I hear noise. Background noise and I think I hear voices muffled. “Helloooo…”, I croon. Nothing. I decide to give up and as I’m putting down the receiver I hear a voice saying, “Hello? hello? hel…..”, gone. My hand is resting on the receiver and it is in the cradle and the whole scene is quiet. I just hung up on whomever it was on the other end of the line. Well, if this isn’t a fine how-do-you-do. I wonder who it was on the other end. I stared at the digital screen above the dial pad. I make out a few letters but since the readout only shows the bottom half it is impossible to determine what the words are.
I decide to open a can of beans and eat dinner. That is all I can do at this point. I’ll just eat a can of beans and maybe something will come to me.

G. M. Goodwin
June 23, 2018