Bafflement

At one of my bookgroup meetings a while back:

A spectacular sunny autumn afternoon in the host's delightful garden patio. Refreshments, a homemade tomato tart, a cool autumn breeze.

A discussion worthy book, good insights, some funny anecdotes and some considered criticisms. Good talk, all participated. I love this group.

Nine women, all of a certain age (older, actually), all comfortably but stylishly dressed, all mentally sharp and with it, but slow of motion lately.

And seven had on Apple watches. One watch chimed with an incoming call. Confusion reigned. How do I answer this? My granddaughter is calling. Tap that there, no that, never mind. Huh? I'll call her later.

Another dinged with a notice. More confusion, but attended to with a tap. And then another beeped, more bafflement.

Lots of discussion then about what the watch was supposed to do or not do and how, and who knows how to work these things, and that led to a long enthusiastic discussion about kids these days. 

You know . . . the texting, thumb typing, limited attention spans, lack of focus, too much screen time, and what do they even read? 

There was a pause and then . . . ripples of laughter. Some guffaws. Don't we sound like old ladies? Don't we? Grumpy and out of touch?

The group admitted they wear the Apple watch for health tracking and fall alerts. But it does more, and we spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out what the "more" was and why and who even needs this stuff.

I like that we can laugh at ourselves. I like that we are still trying, some of us in our mid 80s, others in our later 70s, to stay current. I like that. 

But boy are we a bunch of old timers, woefully out of it, goofily struggling to adapt, but still at it. And all connected to the wider confusing world with our baffling wristwatches.