A Simple Design that Holds Together

I have an iPod Mini in silver. I have an old school iPod Nano in black. At one point, there were eleven iPods in my home. Today, my family of four owns six iPods between us - a good safe number, I suppose. We have five mobile phones between us. Four computers - a laptop, a netbook and two PCs. Three TVs, three cable boxes. Two dogs and a partridge in a pear tree.

We still only have one refrigerator, one dishwasher, one microwave, one washer - one dryer. And life for us is good, often frenetic. The pace in which we live is almost unlivable. Almost every single day, I receive a recorded greeting on my mobile about what is going down at my son's school. Somewhere along the line, someone demanded more contact, more referrals. Shortly after receiving the voice message, an email drops in my inbox so that I may "read" the exact message I just heard.

I rarely walk into a bank any more. I avoid grocery stores until I absolutely HAVE to go. Every where I shop has a "customer rewards card" that I must present or type my phone number into card-swiping machine. Many stores boast self-service check out. Usually, there are hundreds in the check-out lines at the "buy-in-bulk" stores we know and love.

There is always a flash drive in my purse or desk drawer. There are six email accounts that drop into my mobile device. New or updated Apps are available for download every single day. Every corner of my home and car sports a mobile phone charger of some sort. Next to the pictures of my children on my desk is a tower of writable CDs.

And amongst all this technology, the one thing we usually search high and low for and can never find or keep loaded is a stapler. A simple tech by design. Meant to hold together, to bind paper. And we only have one. Five cell phones - one stapler. Seven iPods and one stapler. "For superior penetration and clinching performance." (That's what it said on the box, #seriously)

I guess all you need is one, until that one goes missing. And there really is no substitute is there? Some technologies are best left alone.

by rayannethorn

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Permalink Reply by Tiger Patrick on September 22, 2010 at 3:35am

Excellent! I love my stapler. It's an old school metal baby and it's much older than my first cell phone. Much like my hand cranked pencil sharpener that's fastened snugly to a quiet corner of my home office, it waits patiently for me to ask it to perform it's sole yet vital function. In an era of striving for gadgets that are multifunctional, I find solace in things that don one thing well, when I need it. Now where is my remote for my DVDR player? I need to set it for a few games this week! m:)