It may have been the bucolic atmosphere – Pililia and the surrounding towns of Eastern Rizal can evoke the sensations of a bygone era. Or maybe it was my involvement in our community theater production of William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, of which we will hear more anon. The director of the play, Prof. Natividad “Tita Naty” Crame-Rogers, still active at 80 years of age (she has since turned 82), contributed further, with her stories in between rehearsal breaks, of both her experiences in theater and in her first job, as a pioneering PAL flight attendant.

As we were preparing to convoy from Kapitolyo, some of us were making last-minute voice calls or sending text messages to check on such details as transport arrangements and to follow up on stragglers. That triggered yet more reminiscing from Tita Naty: “Back when we were going on our cast outings, all the arrangements were set weeks in advance. None of this last-minute texting or calling and scrambling for transportation or attendance.”

Later, as we were traveling to the Mabanta farm in Pililia, one of the cars in the convoy took a wrong turn somewhere so someone there had to use his mobile to say “To speak troth, I have forgot our way.” Again, Tita Naty sighs, “The map should be the only guide we need,” implying that all the driver had to do was read the map more carefully. Later, after some of us had arrived at the farm, we found that one of the cars that came later couldn't navigate the road because it didn't have enough traction. Again, the cell phone to the rescue – the owner called, and a 4-wheel drive vehicle went off to pick them up.

Rewind several months back, to the time we were preparing for the play. We were discussing the best way to depict the “drooping fog as black as Acheron” to cover “the starry welkin” and confuse the lovers who “seek a place to fight”. Black light was a possibility, in combination with white scarves around the characters involved so the audience could follow their movement on-stage. Unfortunately, that was too expensive. No matter. “Shakespeare didn't have black lights either during his time. His actors relied on good acting, and so will we,” said Tita Naty. As an aside, I'm proud to say that the production was well-received, even by those outside our immediate families.

These events and some other factors I couldn't identify then, or now, contributed to my thoughts of the pre-digital era.

Before I go on, I'd like to clarify that I think of my own digital lifestyle as reasonably 21^st century. I own a PC, a mobile phone, and a PDA. My phone, a GPRS-enabled Siemens ME45, was fairly advanced at the time I bought it five years ago. My PDA, a Handspring Visor Deluxe, had specs that were about par for PDAs then. I still have those 5-year-old devices because they still work for me, although I really should replace them soon because they're slowly bidding goodbye. While they're still with me, they serve well. In fact, I started out this article on my PDA as I was waiting for an appointment. I IR-transmit new phone contacts between my PDA and my phone so I always have at least two copies of address book entries. Make that three copies, because I HotSync with my PC on occasion. I even used to sync the PDA address book with that of one of my Internet accounts. In fact, I prefer to enter my contacts first into my PDA, then beam to my phone. For that matter, I'd rather that my PDA or my phone receive any new contact information via IR. There are equal parts there of a desire for accuracy and of sloth – I'm lazy because I don't want to make any mistakes entering a phone number. So, I don't think anyone can call me a Luddite. You may be surprised, but you can say the same about Tita Naty. She was thinking of technology (black lights) to enhance the forest scene. We had a serious lighting and sound system. She also owns a mobile handset, and uses the theme from “The Entertainer” as her ringtone. She has an Internet-enabled PC, and knows enough about the Internet to ask me to look for Web sites of other community theaters around the world.

No doubt the digital lifestyle offers efficiency and convenience. My PDA has enabled me to work anywhere, even on the MRT platform as I wait for a train. MP3 players smaller than a ball pen can provide a few hours of music. Larger ones, approximately the size of a deck of cards, can carry a few days' worth of music. Cell phones keep us connected to friends and family no matter where we are. Still, you'll agree with me when I say Tita Naty could function even if she didn't have all those yuppie toys. Can we say the same about ourselves?