Old game, new rules

Yes yes yes.
That's right.
Old game, but with one catch: new rules!!!

I think I must have been late in catching on, I mean, maybe I am just too "happy" to see the dark side of things. Too positive maybe? Too innocent? Something, that is for sure. Too "something" to have caught on to the new rules of the game...... It happened many years ago, when my youngest daughter was about 13 or so.....

I had baked a cake. A nice little afternoon tea kind of cake. It was for a special new meeting. The mother of my daughter's friend was coming over. A cake! What a nice thing to do for someone you don't even know (I thought). I was happy with myself, getting to meet a new mother, my daughter was happy with this new friend. And I was happy to sort of get to know new moms, socialize with new people, it seemed so "motherly" so friendly!

The cellphone rang. I heard it in the other room. My daughter answered and her friend, well, they started moving around. Jackets were taken off the rack, doors were opened, and there I was, waiting to see what was going to happen, when I would be meeting this new mother. I looked out the window, went out the front door to greet the new mom. There she was on the cellphone, I guess still making arrangements with the daughter to come out, she was in a rush, she must have said.

What? No cake?

No, this isn't happening....."Hey, hello, I really would love to have you come in. My name is Stephanie and yours? Patrizia, oh do come in, for a coffee.......(and cake I thought).

No, have to run, have to go.
And off they went.
And that was that.

THAT was the moment when I should have caught on: old game, new rules. Only now, with new rules, you had to forget all the old ones. Those rules about being polite, correct, considerate, nice, friendly, helpful, and basically, human. Forget it, the rules have been CHANGED.

Don't make many cakes anymore. So sad. Times have changed. It took me a long long long time to catch on.
Cellphones, computers and all the rest. The old times were much more pleasant, now, rules have been engineered to take the "human" out of our existance. Maybe it was less painful catching on so late, less years to be disillusioned and hurt. I still had hope, and then, it all hit me (sort of like a pie in the face).
Realizing that the games are still played, but only the rules have been modified, almost genetically, to just make sure that you don't get your feelings involved. Press a button and move on to the next game.