I went to a restaurant for dinner.

The second floor was a small, private loft. The staircase was narrow and steep, and as I climbed, I kept wondering, how do they even send the food up here?

Surely the servers aren’t walking up like tightrope walkers, balancing plates.

Later, I noticed a waiter standing quietly by the wall, guarding an unremarkable button.

That’s when I realized, it was a dumb waiter! A small service elevator for food.

Ah.
So this is how it’s done now.

No ropes. No wooden boards. No slow pulling, waiting, no awkward pauses when things get stuck.

Everything was quiet, smooth, efficient.

And yet, for reasons I couldn’t quite explain, I suddenly missed the old way, placing the dish on a wooden board, pulling the rope, hearing it scrape softly against the wall, someone downstairs shouting, “Ready—” and someone upstairs replying, “Slowly—”

The food wasn’t just delivered. It was participated in.

I thought of old fabric shops too. Tracks crisscrossing the ceiling like a star map. The cashier sat high above, clipped the receipt, and with a sharp snap, sent it sliding into the rail. The clip would glide across the entire store, to wherever it needed to go. It wasn’t the fastest method. But I couldn’t help watching.

Now everything is too clean. Press a button— done; Scan— finished. No sound; No waiting; No excess movement.

We’ve saved time, and in the process, quietly deleted some things that were unnecessary but delightful.

Those phased-out gestures weren’t wrong. They were just slower, clumsier, and they let us feel that something was happening, not merely being completed.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re slowly turning ourselves into dumb waiters too.

Only responsible for delivering results upward, leaving no trace in the process.

Still, I’ll pause for a rope. I’ll linger for a sliding receipt clip. Because inside those moments is where I first learned, the world isn’t only about being fast. It can also be fun.



—— XC Scribbles · 伍拾貳 LII 🛗