What Hath God Wrought

The last telegram was sent in early 2006. Western Union delivered it, and no one knows who sent the message or what it said. Quite likely it was another announcement of death (which is what telegrams became after all). Perhaps there was a small moment of hope when we wondered if people would stop dying because we had officially stopped the telegram system. But we keep on dying. That last telegram probably told the message that old Grandma Cici had died, and the child who received in Atlanta probably wondered why Grandpa Benni hadn’t just called, or skyped, or sent an email.

No one knows what the last telegram said, but the first telegram is more famous. Four words: What hath God wrought!  which seems as good an introduction as any, full of all the panic and possibility of the future; full of all its tongue in cheek mockery. I choose it as mine.