My Free Lunch
We've all been there - the phone rings, you answer only to have someone poor guy try and sell you duct cleaning services, better phone rates or specifically in our household, online Quran lessons.
Two months back, someone called with a offer for free Globe and Mail delivery for two months. I agreed. The Globe and Mail refuses to let me read more than a few articles a month for free online and since I enjoy this particular paper, I was happy to have to have it delivered at my doorstep free of any cost to me.
For two months, I relished being able to spread the paper out flat and read through it page by page. The smell of freshly printed paper and the feel of it crisply turning at my finger tips was a long forgotten pleasure. It had been almost a decade, may be more, since I last read the paper daily in print form. Usually I skip from site to site, reading snatches of news from various sources. To be perfectly honest, this interest in the news is also new for me. I have spent years avoiding the news because I used to find it depressing. The news is still depressing; I've developed thicker skin. Aging has it's benefits!
My two months of free delivery ended yesterday. I miss having the paper to study at length. I know it would be better for the environment to just revert back to reading the news online but I miss the paper. The online papers don't spread out for me. I can't smell or feel them. I can't thumb through the websites. I only click on items that interest me whereas in the print version, I often glance over pieces that don't necessarily interest me but I'll skim through anyway simply because the piece falls within my line of vision. In this way, I often discover viewpoints I wouldn't otherwise.
My mother is fond of saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well, I got the paper for free for a while but now I have an addiction and one, for which I am willing to pay. I guess, she is right; the bait is always attached to a hook.
Two months back, someone called with a offer for free Globe and Mail delivery for two months. I agreed. The Globe and Mail refuses to let me read more than a few articles a month for free online and since I enjoy this particular paper, I was happy to have to have it delivered at my doorstep free of any cost to me.
For two months, I relished being able to spread the paper out flat and read through it page by page. The smell of freshly printed paper and the feel of it crisply turning at my finger tips was a long forgotten pleasure. It had been almost a decade, may be more, since I last read the paper daily in print form. Usually I skip from site to site, reading snatches of news from various sources. To be perfectly honest, this interest in the news is also new for me. I have spent years avoiding the news because I used to find it depressing. The news is still depressing; I've developed thicker skin. Aging has it's benefits!
My two months of free delivery ended yesterday. I miss having the paper to study at length. I know it would be better for the environment to just revert back to reading the news online but I miss the paper. The online papers don't spread out for me. I can't smell or feel them. I can't thumb through the websites. I only click on items that interest me whereas in the print version, I often glance over pieces that don't necessarily interest me but I'll skim through anyway simply because the piece falls within my line of vision. In this way, I often discover viewpoints I wouldn't otherwise.
My mother is fond of saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well, I got the paper for free for a while but now I have an addiction and one, for which I am willing to pay. I guess, she is right; the bait is always attached to a hook.