Him (excitedly from another room): Hey, Rhina, come see this!
Me (walking into the room several minutes later): What is it?
Him (still excitedly exploring an electronic gadget): See this? You can do this and look what this does. Look at this! Isn’t that cool? This is so amazing. Do you see this? You can even do this! Are you looking? Isn’t this cool?!!!
Me (curiosity dying as I realize it’s an electronic gadget): Oh. Yeah. That’s really cool. Huh!
Him (incredulous): Really? That’s all you have to say? You’re really not impressed? Seriously?
Me (feeling defensive and stressed out because I’m disappointing him): Well. It’s cool. Really.
Him: (Shakes his head and walks away dejected).
For as long as I have known him he has been coming up to me with things such as Bluetooths (or is it Blueteeth?) and DVRs, iPhones, iPads and touchscreens, etc. and showing me a sampling of the amazing things they can do and I have had the same sort of reaction, “Oh. Yeah. That’s really cool. Huh!” And he is always disappointed in the same way. This is a pattern.
Let me tell you a little truth about me that he doesn’t seem to get. I am impressed by technology. I really am. I am extremely impressed. However, I’m still stuck on the incredible invention of THE RADIO!!!!
The radio still leaves me in awe. My mind is baffled and amazed at the fact that another human, same species as me, invented the radio. Seriously, how do you one day figure out how to play music in one place and somehow pick up those sound waves in a very distant place? If you think about it long enough, it baffles your mind, too, doesn’t it? It leaves me wowed in a mouth-gaping, shaking-my-head-in-disbelief and eyes-wide sort of way. The radio leaves me floored. No jokes. No exaggeration required. I can’t wrap my mind around it and I am immensely in awe of how one of us humans figured out that invention.
It makes perfect sense then, that all of the technology that has followed the radio leaves me no more room to be wowed. My response is, “Well, yeah, of course they could create that. Didn’t you hear about THE RADIO? If they can make a RADIO then anything is possible.”
Let’s just say that my level of amazement can only peak so high and they had me at radio.
He just doesn’t get it.
Truthfully yours,
Rhina
The Truth of Who I Am 
[…] It’s been a while since I’ve posted something here and I am getting antsy from not writing! The thing is, I have blog posts composing in my head all day long. And children’s books and novels and letters and ideas and poems, and even some scholarly papers. All. Day. Long. Words play in my head all day long. When I was little and riding in the ‘boot’ of our station wagon on long trips, I would tell myself stories to entertain myself. Obviously this was before DVD players in cars and iPads and smart everythings. I often wish I could multitask with typing being one of the tasks. Oh how I wish I could type and shower or type and drive or type and appear attentive at meetings or type and watch Scandal or type and drift off to sleep or type while grading students’ papers or type while cooking or type while folding laundry. Yep…my To Do list is now typed. I’m waiting for that technological invention that will type as I compose in my head. It’s sure to be more impressive than the radio and I’ve already shared exactly how in awe I remain about the radio! […]
I have a radio that my grandparents and father used to sit around and listen to in the evenings in their tiny home in the back, back, back hills of the West Virginia coal-mining mountains. It is beautiful. I think about all they heard and discussed those cold evenings huddled around the family fire to stay warm. The news that came from all around filled that room. It sits in my home now, next to a picture of my father at a young age playing with his toys; the radio in the background. My dad doesn’t know about Pandora Radio or how to text a picture or what tweeting even means. He doesn’t know how to update a Facebook Status or set up skype cameras to communicate with my sister overseas. But my dad knows a good radio when he sees one – for it brought his family together and guided them through hearing from the rest of the world. Radios rock.
That is a beautiful image, Lydia! Thank you for sharing it here. It must be so nice to look at that photo of your dad with the radio in the picture.
Okay this really had me chucking out loud to myself at 7:42 a.m. in Belize as I muddle through plans for next week’s workshops…You always lift my spirits…I just love your light heartedness…it comes across in all you do and say…You are a marvel…just like the radio! Perhaps he will get it after reading your truth! Keep sharing!
Glad you got a chuckle out of it. It may take more than a blog post for him to get it!