Google It

You’re sitting at the table with the family, trying to remember what actor starred in what movie, and five iPhones come out. (Well, 4 iPhones and one Android…my son doesn’t do Apple.) It’s a race to see who can google the information the quickest.

I personally miss the old days. The days where you would play the "guessing game." Throwing the names and movies back and forth until someone, anyone would come up with the answer. It went like this.

"You know, that guy...the one with the mustache."
“He was in the movie with Nicolas Cage where he was a ghost guy.”

“Ghost rider.”

“Yeah. He played the ghost from the Old West.”

“And he was in the reindeer movie.”

“Rudolph?”

“No, the other reindeer.”

“Dasher, Dancer, Prancer…”

“That’s it. Prancer.”

"Is he married to the lady that was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?”

“I think so, what was her name?”

“Something Ross.”

“Katherine.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Is it Sam Ellison?”

“No, but I think that’s close.”

“Elliott, Sam Elliott.”

By now the conversation has hit frenzy. Names and words flying through the air like Nic Cage on the bike in Ghost Rider. I loved it. Getting from point A to point B, everyone getting involved in the chase.

But, now, in two pushes of a button we get Sam Elliott.

Where’s the fun? I remember once we couldn’t come up with the answer and I woke up at two in the morning and yelled “Yentl!!” Kirk didn’t even wake up. But I knew that I had come up with the answer. It was as if I’d won an Olympic Race. Smiling to myself, I rolled over and tried to sleep. But the joy was almost too much to let me sink back into slumber.

Soon, we won’t even need to utilize what little part of the brain we operate on. We’ll merely push a button. But I guarantee the feeling that comes with finding the answer hidden in the recess of your mind will never be replaced by any device. So put them away. Use that brain. Expand that knowledge, because eventually you’ll turn fifty and won’t remember... wait, where was I?

(FYI..I would never forget who Sam Elliott is, it was just an example.)