Maybe Your GPS Can Help You Find Your Kindle

OK - so I'm now that cranky old woman who hates technology. I don't really hate it. I mean...I want an iphone. I wish I had a nice flatscreen outside for football games. I think air cards are too cool. But there are a few things that really turn me off, electronically speaking.

The first? GPS machines for the car. Last night on the drive home from Savannah, we passed multiple cars with their GPS units prominently displayed on the dashboard. What did they all show? One big, straight, blue line showing I-75 South. I mean seriously....do you really think you're going to get lost on the Interstate? I have had a few personal experiences with the old GPS units in the past. Last summer, our rental car had one while we were in West Palm Beach. It managed to take us to the wrong place not once, not twice, but three times. And it's not like we were looking for really obscure locations, either. Once was a T.G.I. fridays that is located on a major thoroughfare. The GPS took us to an empty lot. A few weeks back, my mother-in-law used her GPS to drive down to Tampa. She called from the train wreck that is I-275, trying to figure out where in the heck she was. She was a good 20-25 minutes south of where she was supposed to be, and since it was rush hour, it added over an hour to her trip. Last week, the mom of one of Chase's classmates showed up late to a Spray park playdate. She said "I don't know what happened! My GPS took me all over the place! How did you find it?" I replied evenly "I used a map." The other moms all laughed like I was making a joke. Ha ha - but I really DID use a map. I had a general idea of where I was going - I just referenced my handy-dandy PAPER MAP to get the name of the correct road to turn onto.

So this got me thinking....what on Earth do you even need a GPS for? Unless you are a travelling Sales Rep or someone who visits new towns and cities a lot, what do you need one for? On the average day, where do you go that would require a GPS? Are you off-roading in the Everglades? Driving dirt roads in Bryce Canyon, Utah? WHAT? Do you need your GPS to get you to the grocery store? Or the movie theater? The best is those folks (and you know who you are) who live in a smallish town (Pensacola) and who have lived there their entire lives, and they have a GPS. I haven't lived in Pensacola for 10 years, and I still know my way around. It's craziness, I tell you. Some people buy the electronic device just to have one.

Then there's my other nemesis. The KINDLE. I don't have one, I don't want one. I LOVE books. I have always LOVED books. Ever since I was at Cordova Park Elementary School and came in 2nd every damned year in the reading competitions (thanks Ashley Weaver.) Bart and I have a great collection of well-worn favorites. Some paper back, some hardback. Some picture books, some reference books. I still have the Britannica Children's Atlas that I had as a child. Even though a lot of the countries no longer exist, and some new ones have come into existence, I remember that book. I used to look at the pictures and read the description and dream about visiting some of the places. I still have the beaten and abused Richard Scary books that I used to LOVE to read and look at at my Aunt Biddy's house when I was little. I have my Dad's copy of Treasure Island (the one he used in High School) that is so used it fell apart when I re-read it a few months back.

For me, books have always been an escape. A way to be someone else, go someplace else, and experience new things. I loved that when I finished reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I had been so involved in the story and the characters, that I felt like I had lost a good friend. I love dog-earring pages that have some of my favorite parts, and going back again and again to re-read those pages. There's something about thumbing through pages - actual paper and ink - that is comforting and rewarding. The phrase "it's a real page turner" just won't work with a Kindle.

I think it's really cool that in this day and age of emails and ebooks, me and my friend Deb have reconnected through BOOKS. That's right - we have taken to finding really great books, reading them, and then mailing them to each other. In a real box through the postal service. It's such a treat to get something in the mail that's not a bill or advertising crap. Then, you open it up and a little treasure is inside, full of laughs or tears or adventures. And you feel a little closer to that friend who sent it to you, because you recognize why she loved that book, and why she thinks you will like it too.

It makes me sad, too, that the Public Libraries are going to start having the digital books. We love the Public Library, and I still think it's the coolest thing ever that you can go there and they let you take BOOKS home in good faith. I loved the little branch libraries that used to be in Pensacola. It makes me sad that my kids are just as inclined to go to the Library for the computers as they are to go get books. It makes me sad to know that someday, my grand kids may not even own books printed on paper. It may all be electronic by then.

So I'm standing - stubbornly and proudly - by my paper maps and my paper books. I'm going to keep stockpiling my favorite books, so that one day maybe my grand kids might read them. Part of the adventure is finding your way, and sometimes that means getting a little lost.

** Post Script: In all fairness to my beloved daughter, she loves books too. Her copies of the first 4 Harry Potter books, her Percy Jackson books, and her entire Narnia Series books are all bent and dog-earred to death. In the past, I have had to literally take the book out of her hands because she was reading in the shower. So maybe some of our love of books has rubbed off on her...