Cable

We depend on cable for our internet connection. It’s amazing to me to think that my access to the internet is only 25-30 years old (and originally, that was dial-up, a slow and frustrating connection).  My wife works from home so besides normal internet stuff, she uses it as a part of her work.  That eliminates other options (satellite, cellular, etc) as being too slow where we live.

Anyway, we’ve had cable with the same company for 25 years.  24 of those years, the cable came from a pole and hung across our yard to hook into our house along with the power line.  Last year, the internet started acting up and they determined that a critter chewed on the line, exposing it to rain. They decided to bury the coaxial cable.  I was elated because I was sure that this action would eliminate the critter outage problem.

Our cable company subcontracted to have our cable buried last year.  They did a poor job by laying it on top of the ground in one area and just barely below the surface in other areas.  With the weather last winter, the cable actually came above the ground in 4 areas.  I was worried that I’d run over the cable and cut it with my lawnmower.  I had to call, set an appointment with a tech, the tech had to visually see the cable above the ground and report it, then another department had to send someone out to fix it.  I expected them to bury a new cable.

Without warning, a subcontractor (I assume) popped up this morning unexpected.  The problem was that he didn’t speak any English (and I don’t speak Spanish).  He used the translator on his phone to converse (crudely and slowly) with me.  Shortly, he, through his phone, told me that his boss told him to rebury the exposed cable and not replace the entire buried cable.  It’s already 80 plus degrees outside so I felt sorry for him as he, by hand, dug a trench to rebury the cable in 4 places.

The point is that we communicate using language with each other to convey thoughts and ideas.  I know, before I retired, I’d be in many meetings with my boss (and me with my employees) where the same request was described several times by the requestor until he or she was sure that the request was communicated. From my perspective, having my boss describe what he or she wanted several times irritated me some but not half as much as working to give them an answer only to find out I didn’t understand the request and had to redo the work. 

Now imagine the Tower of Babel.

“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” - Genesis 11:1-4 ESV

This shows the creativity and determination of man that they were able to look at an insurmountable objective and determine to do it.  This also shows the pride and sinful nature of man by wanting to elevate themselves up to God’s level instead of worshiping him.

“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” - Genesis 11:5-9

Today, the subcontractor and I struggled to communicate the cable problem and to figure out a solution.  When I imagine the thousands of people that were suddenly put in a position of not being able to communicate with each other, I can only imagine how scared and confused they were.  But, the important lesson is to remember that we were created by God to worship him and no matter what we do, we will never be at his level.