Zoom
Not long ago we were zooming from one activity to the next. Zooming to work, to children’s extra-curricular activities, to church, to Bible Study, to committee meetings, to board meetings, to here, to there and everywhere. We were zooming to so many activities we didn’t know if we were coming or going. Our color-coded calendars were getting the best of us. And for those who use paper calendars, the myriad erasures were tearing up the delicate paper. Fast forward to a global pandemic. Some of us have learned a new meaning of “Zoom,” which is the web-based meeting platform that looks like the Brady Bunch meets Hollywood Squares. Your square lights up when you move. If you don’t know how to turn off your camera, you might give the meeting participants a little more insight into your life, library and (clears throat) ‘library’ than you intended. If you don’t know how to turn off your mic, then the dog barking or the neighbor’s grass cutting become a meeting nuisance. Frankly, I’d like to reminisce about Zoom by Lionel Richie and the Commodores. You know, where we can ‘... fly far away from here, Where my mind can see fresh and clear, And I'll find the love that I long to see, People can be as what they wanna be, Whoa, I wish the world were truly happy, Living as one, I wish the world they call Freedom, Someday would come, Someday would come.’
That took you back, right? Or maybe we could go back to the time when Zoom was the educational yet entertaining PBS television show featuring “Zoomers” who ‘presented various activities such as games, plays, poems, recipes, jokes, songs, movies, science experiments, and informal chats on subjects such as hospitals, prejudice, etc., all suggested by viewer contributions’ (per Wikipedia). Please tell me you remember the show and it’s unforgettable signature ending where you were told to mail your suggestions to their Boston, Massachusetts address. The Zoomers would sing the zip code from which the show emanated: ohhhhhhh, twoooooooooo, ooooooooone, threeeeeee fouuuuuuuurrrrr!
Are you singing along? Which version are you singing: ‘Oh, zoom! I’d like to fly far away from here!’ Or “Come on and zoom. Come on and zoom. Come on and zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom!’?
I’m Chi and that’s what I said.
