Inevitable is not a date

A corner grocer in Alexandria keeps a card machine under the counter, behind the plastic bags. It works. He just does not offer it. Most of his customers pay with notes, he gives change from a drawer, and the machine waits.

Ask anyone whether small shops like his will one day take most payments by card or phone, and they will say yes, obviously. They treat it as settled, a question of when, not if.

They are probably right. Plenty of changes look like this. Everyone can see where the road goes. The arguments are settled. Nobody serious expects things to stay as they are forever.

But eventually is not a plan, and it is not a date. Eventually can mean next year or twenty years from now, and those are completely different worlds for the grocer, for his customers and for anyone hoping to sell either of them something. A change that is certain but slow behaves, for a long while, exactly like a change that is not coming.

So the useful question is never whether. It is how long, and what shortens it.

Sometimes the answer is small and close at hand. The machine on top of the counter instead of under it. A handwritten sign saying cards are welcome. A cashier who does not sigh when someone holds out a card. Each of these takes a little off a wait that everyone assumed would take care of itself.

Inevitable things still need someone to hurry them along. Left alone, they keep their own schedule, and it is rarely ours.