Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bar Codes and Magnetic Strips

I finally realized it while travelling with the Air Force basketball Team the last 2 weeks. I am a bar code and a black magnetic strip. So are you. Thats what we have come to. Go grocery shopping. They scan your item and find the bar code with all this information on the product. Fly around the country. When you check in they ask you to swipe you credit card, and from it they pull all this info about you. Kinda scary in a way. My life has been reduced to a 4 inch black strip (although there are those that would say its more interesting than me in real life!) Rent a car, buy anything in a store, and thats who we are to the credit card people and the computers. And after all, thats whats running this country, not the government. I have two credit cards-no debit cards. My sons have debit cards and kid me about being old fashoined. I tell them, "Look-if you are in a foreign country and there's a mob coming after you, hold up your debit cards and see what happens. You're done. If I am in the same predicament, I pull out a wad of cash. The mob stops, and I have time to plan my escape. From cash to codes, from coins to cards with magnetic strips. Its faster these days, but more colder and impersonal. Oh for the good ole days!