A Wireless Enhanced Marriage – Part Two
A Wireless Enhanced Marriage – Part Two
Remembering to Remember
Let’s face it, nowadays there’s no excuse for either partner to forget important events such as birthdays or anniversaries. We can now wirelessly sync our PDAs to display parallel information (and reminders) and our calendars can even prompt to tell us that we need to buy a card, gift and so on; so there’s no chance of any big day slipping our minds. This does, however raise the question: “Has technology taken the romance out of modern marriage, or has it positively enhanced it?”
For example, from a wife’s perspective, should I celebrate the fact that a reminder pops up on my husband’s screen about my birthday several days before the event and then gives him an option to purchase his card and gift online? Should I be thrilled that the same store then provides suggestions as to the ideal gift, based upon my age, weight and hair color? Or should I look back wistfully on yesteryear, when he all too often hurriedly grabbed a bunch of flowers on the way home along with the only ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR WIFE” card left in the garage shop and then tried to discretely phone a restaurant to book a last minute table? Should the ‘new and improved’ wirelessly-enhanced version of my event-ready husband be applauded or chastised? A personal choice I realise, but I rather liked the bashful last minute romantic offerings of the old Dean. Call me an old fashioned girl, but there was something quite endearing about the sudden realization of the missing card or gift that made the ‘making up for it’ so much more romantic than the sometimes all too smug handing over of the perfect (haveIgotagiftforyou.com) prezzie (beautifully gift wrapped as an optional extra of course!).
A Debt of Gratitude
I fear that I may be somewhat straying from the core message of this piece. It was intended from the start to be a grapple of the Grattons, a wireless rant if you will, about how wireless might be used to enhance and improve my husband. Instead, I find myself singing its praises for the most part for having narrowed the distance between us on so many occasions. I guess that I’m just a woman who’s content with her man after all. Unlike wireless technology, we don’t always want a seamless and invisible connection, especially in the bedroom! Marriage is all too often turbulent, messy and passionate, but that’s what fundamentally keeps it alive. So whilst we may have narcissistic fantasies of what the perfect spouse should be I have to admit that absolute perfection would inevitably grow to be boring very quickly; hence a dichotomy forms, since being boring ultimately makes the perfect man imperfect! Similarly, control shouldn’t be one sided, as experienced within a wireless context – no master and slave relationship for me thank you very much, but a joining of minds and souls that, if correctly balanced, withstands the test of time.
There is no doubt that wireless technology surrounds us and will continue to grow and, to some extent, dominate our lives. Even smarter homes will rise up with greater incorporated technology and more wireless capability than ever perceived possible, but the truly smart family will be able to distinguish, and nurture, the difference between real-time and real times together. Sounds terribly corny I know but it’s a statement that will undoubtedly hold particular meaning for those spouses who see more of their husbands or wives on their computer screens than they do on their sofas.
For as long as I have known my husband, he has been passionate about wireless technology. Out of this passion has sprung an extraordinary career, resulting in the publication of three amazing books on wireless technology along with a string of successful articles. For this, above all else, I owe wireless technology a debt of gratitude and I can honestly say that, for all intents and purposes, my husband has been truly wirelessly-enhanced. So thank you wireless for making my husband the man he is today; successful, happy and, although not always here, always loved.
Dr Sarah-Jayne Gratton has a PhD in Psychology and an Advanced Diploma in Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy. She is the author of Marketing Wireless Products (Butterworth Heinemann, 2004) and her work has been published in a number of newspapers and magazines.
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