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Lee Chemel's avatar

Well, Will, as someone who has been around for a REALLY long time, I had a thought about your glasses. THEY may last forever, but your eyes.... your prescription. That will change. Mine has. Many times over the 78 years I've been alive. And here's the weird thing: when I got cataract surgery when I was 68, my dr. inserted a thing called a topic lens, which CORRECTED my visions. OS then my prescription got lighter instead of deeper. So things changed, but n a different direction. That's where my crazy brain is going on your subject of obsolescence. I enjoy reading your stuff.

s

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Steve Peterman's avatar

A very thought provoking piece, even if it did lead me to thoughts of my own mortality. Yeah, there isn't a whole lot in my world that doesn't wear out, and usually faster than it should. My parents had a heavy rotary dial phone that, if I could find it and plug it in, would probably still work, and better than the piece of crap cordless phones we keep around in case of...I don't know, sunspots? I started thinking about what I own that will last beyond me and it's down to a couple of pieces of jewelry. My wedding ring, which has been on my finger or in my pocket (no, I wasn't playing around on your mother, I occasionally acted in shows where I wasn't supposed to be married) every day since June of 1980. The band is a little worn down, but it's in no danger of falling off my finger any time soon. Same with the earring I got about twenty years ago when I was going to meet with a comedian about working on a pilot together. His whole thing was "I still think of myself as a cool rock and roller but now I've got a daughter and when I take her to a Weezer concert I'm the weird older guy playing air guitar." So I got an earring before the meeting because when I walked in looking like the straight middle aged guy I had become, he would see the earring and think, "oh, this guy has some hidden hipness, too." The meeting got cancelled, we never met and now I've had the earring so long I couldn't get it out if I tried. They'll find it a thousand years from now next to the pile of dust that is me and they'll think, "oh, this guy had some hidden hipness." And then they'll see the ring and say, "and he was married, too."

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