Let me explain. I was in the coffee shop opposite church picking up my early morning latte on my way in around 7:45.  They have a giant TV screen always tuned to BBC news 24 (or whatever it's called these days) with the sound switched off and subtitles on.  They also have some sort of 'gold' radio station playing so the music is of 'my' era, which is quite pleasant.  On the TV news was an interview about so-called smart meters and how these may, or may not, lead to reduced energy consumption.  I'm not sure how the subtitles are done these days, whether it is some sort of voice recognition software or something with predictive text, but there are regularly some entertaining, if incomprehenisble, howlers to be seen.  And this was one such.... 'most consumers don't have thimbles...'

It does, I suspect, reflect our 'zap pow' instant lifestyle, whereby the few seconds it would take for someone to type, and check, the subtitles is deemed too long.  Also, by and large, the once valued skills of audio-typing have largely disappeared, so we are left with people who, like me, use half of their fingers, and watch the keyboard, not the screen...

As a church, we are spending some time thinking about 'active waiting' about the 'meantime' which can seem long, slow and relentless... patience is out of fashion (though listen to any automated telephone answering thing and you will be asked to exercise it!).  Perhaps the subtitles this morning serve as a reminder of the dangers of rushing ahead, that we will inevitably end up with things that make perfect sense at one level but are totally meaningless at another.  Most consumers probably don't have thimbles, decorative or functional, but neither is relevant to their consumption of gas or electricity, so far as I can ascertain. 

Whilst I wonder what was actually said in the interview, I am challenged in my own typing, thinking and doing to remember that 'more haste, less speed' is as true as it ever was.  Does that mean I'll be making typo-howler free posts from now on?  Probably not - indeed I've been tempted to leave one or two in this one just for authenticity's sake.  But a timely reminder to be in less of a hurry.