Acronyms, I understand, are the domain of people, all kinds of people. Since acronyms are extremely popular, I have decided to join the populace. Not that I am inclined to believe that my personal acronyms find public acceptance.

Let us say that for writing purposes I would like to introduce the acronym BC for before the computer and AC as the acronym for after the computer. It’s a little like mile markers on the highway except that this particular kind of travel is more like time travel, something I seem to be doing rather frequently these days.

The majority of ICON members are quite familiar with a time zone prior to the advent of the computer. That topic was on my mind when I visited Clarence. I agreed to bring some of his friends who reside at Culpepper together, for something titled Sunday Afternoon With Elsa. It was an experiment that took wings. The people who participated were still there participating long after I had left.

The oldest person participating was 101 years old. I was the youngest. It felt good, for once, to be the youngest. I am awed by the amount of knowledge I encountered. There were former teachers, administrators, factory workers, business owners; all of them female and most of them mothers. Most of them lived the major part of their lives before the advent of the computer. The centenarian told us that she started teaching at age 17. Going to work was a daily adventure. Part of the way to work was by bus, and the last couple of miles on foot through rugged Ozark timberland. For quite a time span, she actually packed a pistol at the advice of her father. We thought it delightfully funny to remind her of a hit song years ago with the line pistol-packing mama.

 She may have been the only one who went to work with a pistol at her side. But many of the people around that table recalled riding their horses to school. All of them, including myself, recalled days that began with splitting wood and carrying water, stoking the fire in the wood stove, and baking bread and biscuits.

That was before the computer became a major part of life. Nowadays you can stop at a fast-food place and order eggs and biscuits without leaving the car. The computer sorts out the price and regulates the microwave that provides fast service.

As a group around the table, we were of the opinion that the arrival of the computer was vividly brought to mind when a science fiction movie introduced us to a computer that not only sang Daisy Daisy, but also dispatched almost an entire crew of astronauts from Here to Eternity.

My little crew around the table that Sunday afternoon also recalled computer errors with money transactions and drug dispensation. Most of them had great-grandchildren who were more familiar with the computer than the chores around the house, such as washing dishes and cleaning floors and making beds.

As a group, they remembered making gifts for birthdays and weddings and Christmas. Of course, that was long before it was possible to have your identity stolen by someone stealing the information on that little plastic card that made the purchase of knickknacks easy and dangerous at the same time.

All of them agreed that this particular BC (Before Computer) was long ago and far away. AC (After Computer) carried with it new complications and new dangers. Our own pistol-packing mama, seated across from me at the table, felt that BC was the time when honesty, loyalty and reverence for life were values taught and practiced. Most of them agreed that these values were still taught, but where was the desire to practice? And if there was no desire to practice honesty, loyalty and reverence for life, was that the fault of the computer?

I learned a lot that afternoon. Life after the advent of the computer is certainly less strenuous. But is it less honest? Not really. Jesse James robbed banks long before the existence of the computer. If someone is dishonest now, it becomes public knowledge. The computer speeds up the process of spreading shame and blame. Clarence, in a private conversation after the discussion, was of the opinion that the computer allows a discrete distance between criminal and victim. He thought that made some of the crimes less violent without making them less heinous.

My computer allows me to accumulate knowledge, play games, give directions, and in a way enjoy art and culture. What I do with that treasure of intelligence remains my choice: Yes, I can remain honest; and no, I do not lie, cheat, and corrupt body and mind, mine as well as others, for personal gain. That remains a personal choice, just as it was when Jesse James robbed banks.

Essentially nothing much has changed. My life is less labor-intensive and basically enriched because of the computer. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, IS A GOOD THING.