Our wills and fates

Do so contrary run,

That our devices still are overthrown,

Our thoughts are ours,

Their ends, none of our own.

— Shakespeare, King Lear

App is really an abbreviation for application or application programme, a computer programme that is designed for a plan or purpose. After you download an app to your device, you can access whatever that app was programmed to do.

And not only do devices use apps or need them to function, so do people, for without a certain app many people would be unable to carry out certain functions.

Apparently this has been going on from the time of Shakespeare, for as you can see in the quote above, there’s a line that says, “That our devices still are overthrown, our thoughts our own.”

Wow, and this is a big wow, for it appears as if time travel is possible, based on that utterance. Was Shakespeare referring to devices such as the smartphone, iPad or tablet? Surely this could not be, and surely I jest, for the word devices does have other meanings. Got you thinking there for a moment, huh.

Even in song there’s reference to devices.

“Mirrors on the ceiling

The pink champagne on ice, and she said,

We are all just prisoners here

Of our own device.”

Prisoners of our own device. I wonder if the Eagles knew how prophetic those words were when they wrote
Hotel California? Yes, so many people are prisoners of their own devices as they can’t put the damn things down.

Nevertheless, electronic device or simply the will to do something or not does determine what a person is capable of, and I can assure you, many people do not have the app to carry out certain functions, and that’s why they need the App Store.

That’s where we’ll go today, right after we see what these readers had to say about my take on ‘Reality check’.

Teerob,

You really nailed this one squarely on the head. So many people walk around in a different time zone, and it’s only after they get a reality check that they are jolted back to reality and brought down to Earth. Those guys who you mentioned, I see them all the time, locked in a time warp, living in the twilight zone where they think that time stands still. Their reality check is when they’re left all alone with a whopping liquor bill after the young girls have left.

Kirk

Tony,

I don’t know if you’re being funny or cruel, perhaps a little of both I think, for it’s really funny to see those old guys trying to pick up young girls, but it’s also cruel when you throw the ageing process in people’s wrinkled faces. Still, you didn’t make the rules, but merely pointed them out. If people stopped trying to be what they aren’t and accept that they are in a different time zone, then there wouldn’t be a reality check.

Althea

I must confess, it was while speaking with a dear friend of mine that I heard the term app in reference to people, when she said, “Oh, that person hasn’t got the app for that.” Of course, as I pointed out earlier, it’s mostly used in the world of electronic devices, but after much observation and research, I had to concur people also either have an app or don’t have apps that make them function or not.

Everyone has different personalities, characteristics, quirks, traits that make them capable of doing things or not. So let’s take the app of sensitivity, an app that not many people are bestowed with.

As a result, those people are unable to sense or detect any shift or change in either a situation or in a person. Why? Because they haven’t got the app for that.

“So how come that man never saw that his woman was upset and in emotional pain all the time?”

“That’s because he hasn’t got the app for it.”

Now ain’t that the truth, for there are people who are as thick-skinned as a rhino and possess the sensitivity of a wart hog, as they haven’t got the slightest inkling of what’s occurring in their surrounding space. I mentioned two animals just now, but do you know that as big as an elephant is, it can detect the slightest touch of a fly on its skin as dem seh, “Even when fly pitch pon him skin him feel it.” Also, elephants are extremely emotionally sensitive too, so if that huge beast can have the sensitivity app, why can’t some people who are insensitive to the feelings of others? They just haven’t got the app for it.

At times people are unforgiving, and that’s a characteristic that’s often difficult to shake. When someone is wronged, physically or emotionally, it’s difficult if not impossible to forgive that person who inflicted that wrong.

“Him slap me suh I just slap him right back.”

When asked by disciple Peter, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my wrongdoer, seven times?”

“Not seven times, but seventy times seven,” was the reply from Jesus.

How many people have the app for that? Turn the other cheek when slapped, forgive and forget, let bygones be bygones, anything for a peaceful life, move on, is often said, but that’s a tall order, for most human beings are not equipped with that app.

Even the act of forgiving yourself is often difficult, as many people are so burdened by guilt of their past transgressions that they find it nigh impossible to forgive themselves.

“He’s carrying around that cloud of guilt for decades and will never forgive himself for what he did. He just hasn’t got the app for forgiveness.”

Many people have downloaded the app of revenge, and as the old saying goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” In other words, they wait until much time has elapsed before they exact their revenge on the person who wronged them. Long run, short ketch, is the old Jamaican saying.

“Him tink say that I forgot nuh, is long time I waiting to get back at him yu nuh, long time.”

Is that app of revenge linked to emotional karma? Call it what you will, but it exists in more people than not. Sadly, in this modern world, if you turn the other cheek too often, you’ll only end up with a never-ending barrage of slaps, as your assailant will think, “Cho, him soft, mek me bax him some more.”

I guarantee, if you get slapped and return the favour, that person will think twice about slapping you again. Despite the
Bible verse about turning the other cheek, we have to adapt to the changing times.

Then there is the app of passion, and believe it or not, many people are not equipped with this app, and as a result are devoid of any feelings whatsoever. It’s natural for us to have passion, or so you would think. But you’d be surprised how many people have no passion at all.

You could kiss them, hug and caress them, cuddle, smooch and bite, leaving more hickeys on their neck than a vampire would, but they just lay there unmoved and unresponsive.

“I tried everything to turn him on, but he just lay there with no response.”

“Man, I kiss her till me lip swell, but she just lay there stiff as an ironing board.”

That’s because they haven’t got the app of passion, and until that app is installed, it’s best that you stop flogging that dead horse, for unlike Lazarus who rose from the dead in the
Bible, there’s no hope of a passion resurrection for them.

Surprisingly, this app is absent from many young people too, based on my findings, perhaps due to a childhood lacking in affection or love. Whatever the reason, they end up without the app of passion and simple as you take it, passion is an extremely important part of our lives.

“Nothing great is accomplished without passion. Love is what elevates the soul, but passion ignites love.” — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

There are so many other apps that people are not equipped with. There is the app of good manners and good breeding, an app that I think simply does not exist in this modern-day world. The app of compassion, which is linked to the app of sensitivity. The app of empathy is a must.

Call me an idealist, call me a dreamer, but it seems as if so many people need to visit the App Store and download some of these crucial apps. We now live in the world of AI which makes the impossible now possible, the implausible now plausible, the unfeasible now feasible and seeing is no longer believing as it’s difficult to decipher what’s real and what’s not real anymore.

“I saw it on Facebook, so it must be true.”

Robots are being made to perform tasks that humans used to do or were incapable of performing. Who knows, maybe one day they will take over and run the world eventually. But what is true, those robots have built-in apps that make them perform various tasks, and sadly many humans don’t.

So maybe in time they’ll be able to implant certain apps in people to get them to perform certain tasks that I mentioned earlier. Until then, they’ll just have to try to download some emotional apps to make them complete individuals.

But as my good friend who introduced this idea to me said, “If they haven’t got the app to do certain things, there’s little that can be done.”

More time.

seiso1yard@gmail.com

Footnote: Jamaicans are everywhere and we’re found in the remotest areas of the globe. Indeed we have made our mark on different cultures who not only love and embrace our style, but try to emulate it. It’s estimated that there are more Jamaicans in the Diaspora than are here on “The Rock”. They contribute immensely to our economy with their constant flow of remittances, which is welcomed. The question has been asked, though, should those Jamaicans have a say in our political decision -making? Some say no way, as after all, they don’t live here and don’t know the challenges that we go through. Others say yes, they should have a say in our governance and political process. What do you say?