As I write this, I am angry. I feel that we “civilized” people are taking advantage of each other in a most blatant and insulting way. I recently spent the better part of a day trying to configure my new MacBook Pro. By the time I left the Mac store, I felt utterly hopeless. In order for me to utilize the machine I just purchased for the sum of a month’s pay, I must spend an additionally egregious amount in software updates.

I don’t need fancy new software – I just want the older versions currently running on my outdated machine, but thanks to “new advances in technology,” those old programs won’t run on my new computer. And thanks to those same new advances, my old computer is slowly becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world – unable to send and receive documents and messages that are vital to my ability to stay employed.

And really, it’s our fault – we, the consumers. We love the beautiful marketing baloney that’s thrown at us daily – iPhone, iPad, iBook, iPod, iTouch, iSayEffOff. I say let books be books, phones be phones, and leave touching for human interaction.

Thank the Great Unknown for simpler beauty, like red velvet…..

…and scarlet clematis blooms….

…and little red dacshunds…liittle red dacshund – ooh ooh ooh! – baby you’re much too fa-at….

…and giant, leafy rhubarb plants with their ruddy, secret stalks….

…and crimson silk-threaded antique silver beads from Afghanistan, thanks to a lovely friend…..

…and deep carmine calla lilies, so dark in complexion they appear as hooded apparitions against a stark sky….

…and bare feet in trees…..

…and a man in my life who plucks the first rose bloom of the year and sneaks it onto my desk when I’m not looking…..

All photos taken by yours truly.