Calling cards, the precursor to the business card, originated in fifteenth century China, and were popularized in Europe in the 1800s. In pre-telephonic eras they were basically paper answering machines, providing notification that a guest had attempted a visit while one was absent, indisposed or not receiving.

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We don’t hear much about calling cards any longer. Unannounced visits to acquaintances homes are no longer socially acceptable, yet we leave our imprint in many places, showing where we’ve been. If not a physical calling card then a technological one, something to show we’ve been there, we’ve visited, we’ve thought of another.

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Outdated objects commonly get relegated to the verbal compost pile. Once an innovation is no longer a fad, it seems de rigueur that it instead becomes a turn of phrase. The Dictionary of Slang is full of words which once had literal meanings but which were then overused, abbreviated for the sake of convenience, and then altered into incomprehensibility, like the children’s game Telephone.

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And so the phrase “calling card” has changed as well. In this age of instant technology, in which it is almost impossible to avoid cell phones, computers, and texting, a “calling card” no longer refers to an object but is now an expression meaning a trademark, one’s modus operandi. If it’s almost impossible to find an object that hasn’t been computerized, from books to pens, to picture frames and toothbrushes, then why shouldn’t calling cards have been computerized as well?

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Which brings up the question, now that paper calling cards have been phased out by text messages, how do we define calling cards today? What do we as a society leave behind, and how do we make those legacies known? How do we show where we’ve been? Have we left our imprint behind, even in this day and age of technology?

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Einstein left behind a theory of relativity. Darwin left On The Origin of Species. Da Vinci, the “Mona Lisa”, Picasso, “Guernica”. Artists, writers, scientists, and inventors have left future generations paintings, books, advances in medicine and technology. Teachers influence their students in the way they think, parents their children.

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The real question is how do we want to be remembered? How have we enriched our society? What have we created? What is our legacy? What is our calling?

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Thanks for reading JWorld Café, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Jessica Goody, Guest Blogger

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Jessica Goody’s work has appeared in New York newspapers, anthologies such as Timepieces, Moonlight Café’s Poetry By Moonlight, and The Sun Magazine. She was a Featured Poetess of SpiralMuse.com. Her work ranges from poetry and song lyrics to short stories and children’s books. A dedicated environmentalist, she is interested in publishing a volume of poetry and a mystery novella. - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor