According to Google, of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct. This statement is so difficult to comprehend that we cannot possibly fully appreciate its import. It is true that many of the species referred to are things humans would never be aware of; nonetheless, how can we have lost all but 0.1 percent of all species that have ever been placed on earth?
If you ponder that for a while it makes us wonder what else we have lost that would not rise to the classification of a species, just a way of life or some part of our past lives that has been lost. For example:
•
Most of us use credit cards instead of currency, so few of us walk around with change in our pockets and, if we do, it usually ends up on an end table next to our beds or on our dressers.
•
Mobile phones have been the preferred method of communicating with one another for many years, resulting in the elimination of phone booths. What do we do if we lose our ‘phones and we can’t go to the nearest phone booth and call someone?
•
Texting and emailing so dominate how we communicate these days that many of us have lost the art of communicating clearly and accurately. Reading some of the emails we receive makes you wonder what the schools are teaching any more.
•
In addition to losing the ability to communicate intelligently, take a look at how people dress when they are out shopping or eating in a restaurant. And, speaking of eating, many of those eating out look like they are shoveling hay into their faces rather than ingesting bite-size portions.
•
Speaking of restaurants, when were you in a restaurant recently when young children weren’t running around making your experience miserable. What has happened to parenting? Has that been left to our schools and, if so, where are they at dinnertime?
•
And, have you tried lately to get any assistance at a gas station when your car dashboard display says the vehicle needs water or washer fluid? Try asking the cashier, if there is one, for a little help!
•
Finally, does your heart drop and your throat go dry when you turn the corner in the grocery store and see empty shelves of toilet paper products? Not just during hurricane scares or pandemics, but regularly. What is happening to us? Are we being wiped clean?
•
None of these “losses” merits the same relevance as the loss of a species, but they do affect our everyday lives and are things that have disappeared, or will disappear, during our lifetimes. Some are funny, but all are happening!
