Anachronism

Have you ever heard about the SCA, The Society for Creative Anachronism?
It is an international group of folks who enjoy getting together to
dress, speak, and generally relive the middle ages for fun. The last
part of the name, anachronism, means something out of its time, I.E.; a
bunch of 21st century office workers talking with Thou's and “my Lord's”
is a bit of an anachronism.


Out here in the woods I get to feeling anachronistic a lot. I have been
researching things to do with trees. Our settler forefathers made almost
everything they needed out of the raw materials they had, and out here
they had a lot of trees.


The anachronisms start with research. It just feels odd to be using the
Internet to look up info on carpentry techniques used 200 years ago.
Even using a chainsaw feels anachronistic, it's like I should be
dropping the tree with an ax.


A lot of times I think about what the settlers did at night when there
was no more light to work by. I crank up the generator and play computer
games, or watch a movie, or read with an electric light attached to my
forehead. Our forefathers didn't have those options, they had (maybe) a
book or two they could read by candlelight and if they were married,
sex. Chances are they worked so hard during the day that the most common
form of nighttime entertainment was sleep.


Cell phones are another big thing that feels out of place. We have
instant communications with our families hundreds of miles away. We can
get news from around the world or call for help with the little Star
Trek like communicator we stick in our pocket. Our forefathers waited
for weeks or sometimes months for news and letters from outside their
little community or homestead and only had smoke signal's to call for
help with. (Think; burning cabin)


The biggest anachronism is the cars. With our gas powered machines we
can zip off to the city in a hour, jaunt down to town for mail in a few
minutes or haul hundreds of pounds of stuff from here to there as easy
as you please. In the old days a trip anywhere was a major undertaking
that would last all day or even weeks, and required the logistic
planning talents of a militarily supply commander.


So here I sit out in the woods, recording my thoughts on the defining
piece of technology of our time, the computer, and reflecting on all
that I have that my forefathers didn't have. I'm a walking anachronism.


The Geek misplaced in time of Treehaven