Currently on my drive is a shiny, scary, hire car. (My own car is off at the garage having 'kissed' another in the country lanes). It is scary because it is bigger than I have driven before, but mostly because it has so many more buttons, and even the handbrake is replaced by a digital button - and that feels like a button too far.
I love that I work in the computer age, the easy access to resources and being able to contact friends far off, sharing photos and stories. I can rustle up posters and displays easily, and I don't need to have neat writing or to touch type in order to send a tidy letter.
On the other hand I am a long way from being a digital native, and I can be a bit of a Luddite. With digital things you cannot see how they work and I did have a habit as a child of dismantling things to see how they fitted together or worked. That curiosity hasn't ever left me and sometimes I think the security of being able to see something working is reassuring. And a button handbrake just doesn't do it for me!
I like the physicality of lifting the manual one, you can see from its position whether it is on or off, you know you have done it, it feels definite. A button with a light on the dash feels less certain, did it work when I pressed it or not? Can I trust it?
So yes, my Luddite tendency is confirmed - I value the hands-on, the real book even though ebooks can be good for travelling lighter. Or maybe it is a control thing - if I can see how it works I feel better able to trust it. But life is not straightforward, and I can't control everything, or even most things - so must trust the unseen.
Maybe that is a lesson in faith - 'blessed are those who believe without seeing'. Still I think I will be sticking with the hand brake rather than the digital parking button, and hope my car is back soon!
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