The more things change (and they WILL change)

Do you know how much a postage stamp currently goes for? Me neither. It is 78 cents. I read where it is going to go up to 82 cents later this year. I buy the "forever" stamps by the book and haven't even done that for a while. I probably won't use a book of stamps in a year. Most of us don't send out letters and cards through the mail anymore except a few at Christmas, and even that amount is dwindling. The U.S. Post Office is in a financial bind. It doesn't appear to be getting any better, just slowly worse. On the way to church we happened to notice a house with a TV antenna on the roof. Remember those? Who still uses them? We saw one more as we drove. We also spotted three TV dishes. Times change. Now the world is awash in the change that is artificial intelligence. Don't expect any knowledge or sense from me on the issue. Everyone seems to agree it is bringing the next big change. Nineteen years ago, the iPhone came on the scene and revolutionized the world of mobile devices. Each new iteration ramps it up to a new level. The iPod arrived in 2001, had its heyday and is now no more. I had one, starting in 2005. It was great in its time. The iPhone has replaced it in music capability. On and on, coming and going. New jobs are created, old jobs are eliminated. That's the way of commerce, of reality. Blacksmiths and buggy makers probably bemoaned the arrival of that new-fangled contraption called the automobile. It was rendering their trade all but obsolete. The job of icemen delivering blocks of ice was eliminated by the home refrigerator/freezer. And what about the milkmen? Where are they? The next time you go to the grocery store and buy a gallon of milk, remember the milkman. If you think about it, the pace of change is amazingly continuous. Back to the post office – they used to be the only game in town for deliveries. Then came UPS, FedEx, et al. Now Amazon has muscled its way in and threatens to take it all over. Change continues. New things are coming. Every generation, including this one, experiences upheavals of change … or slight adjustments along the way. And so far, life goes on. We humans adapt, and go on. Tom Rupp is a Folsom resident and weekly Telegraph columnist. You can reach him at truppfoslom@yahoo.com.