Letting Go

Martin Tytell was a man who had a love affair with typewriters. He talked to them and handled them with care. He used his Adlers, Remingtons, and Smith-Coronas (typewriter brands) until the print on the keys were faded. He had such an expertise with them that he was able to do with typewriters what the Japanese are able to do with paper origami. He could make musical notations, make reverse carriages and type in Arabic and Hebrew. During the WWII he was able to customise typewriters for the military. Mr. Tytell's story leads one to realize that our attachment to our Macs, HPs, Compaqs or Dells is but an incident of our human tendencies to get too involved - even with inanimate objects. We form such a bond with our things that we find it hard to accept when it's time to replace them. Change - whether from antiquity to technology or from technology to another technology is dreaded yet anticipated. When the affair is over, we are thankful for what has been and though we may not admit it, we are eager of what's to come- knowing that it will be different and hopefully better than what was.