Relative Something

Maybe I’m just a bit old-fashioned, but there are two technological advancements that I disdain, and I just realized they have a certain commonality. Automatic transmissions in cars, and the electric cooktop. They share an aspect of vagueness that I don’t like. I want to be able to feel the control of gears and I want to see the flame providing heat for cooking. Neither of the two technologies do that for me.

I needed to drive Cyndie’s car on the commute yesterday, and in comparison to my manual 5-speed, her car left me feeling dramatically less in control. A lot like placing the pan on the stove and not having any idea of the status of the heat source below.

Cyndie and I are both gas cooktop people and now using an electric style that is in the kitchen of the home we just bought. We are trying to adjust to it, for now, but can’t help feeling it is a totally inferior option. With a gas flame, you know when it is on and when it is off. It doesn’t ramp up and down in intensity while you are cooking. Want more heat? Adjust to a bigger flame.

With the manual transmission car, when I let out the clutch and give it gas, it responds directly, without hesitation. When I want to slow down, simply removing my foot from the pedal allows the gears to slow the car. I just don’t get that kind of control with an automatic transmission. Her car just keeps gliding along, even after removing my foot from the pedal. I’m forced to tap the brakes. Yuck.

I have enough lack of control over other areas of life. Like software. Just when I learn how to control an application, a new version is released that sets me back to struggling to accomplish tasks. Isn’t it frustrating when devices that are supposed to make things easier for us, end up doing just the opposite?

There is a silver lining, though, in my suffering through the driving of Cyndie’s car. She brought mine back all clean and shiny from the car wash.

Sometimes, letting go of that need to control, can bring rewards.