Over the last several decades there have been a number of developments that have served to make life easier, or at least more convenient.
Probably the most obvious development and the one most accessible to the greatest number of people is arguably the personal computer.
It has affected our lives in areas from communication to transportation, and its most prominent creation, the internet has transformed, for better or worse, where we turn for information and truth.
But one man's convenience often spells ruin for another.
For example, a man who spent his life building his career as a printer recently told a friend that when the personal computer arrived on the scene he looked out from his front porch and could see his business going down the tubes and there was nothing in the world he could do about it.
While it is necessary to weigh the convenience and financial savings of the many against the ruin, or at least the inconvenience of the few, there is another issue to consider.
That issue is the loss of creative art in favor of ease, resulting in cookie-cutter output.
I began doing custom calligraphy a couple of years ago, concentrating primarily on providing the service of hand-writing names on wedding invitations for those who wanted to communicate a personal touch to the recipients.
A friend of mine, upon hearing of the service I was providing suggested the possibility of somehow scanning my hand-written characters and incorporating them into a computer program to generate the invitations more quickly.
I realized that the concept of unique personalization had been totally lost on him and reflected the popular concept of convenience at the expense of creativity, a concept that fortunately for me and others like me has failed to gain universal acceptance.
A similar attitude with regard to music has is reflected in the widespread practice of employing recordings of Taps at military funerals.
This is done either by using CD's or an insert that fits into a functioning bugle that has a digital recording of the song that plays at the touch of a button.
To the average person watching, it looks as if the bugle is being played but it is not.
Our veterans deserve better than this corner cutting technique simply for the sake of convenience.
Fortunately nobody has found a way to simulate the folding of the flag and presentation to the family.
Computers have their place.
They provide a valuable service in doing things that simply cannot be practically done by hand.
But when they rob us of the personal touch that we need and deserve, life begins to all look the same, and I think we are all diminished.