Nancy often comments when I point out something, "You notice weird stuff." Well, maybe I do. I know, I do notice things (I guess) most people take as commonplace, normal or no big deal. I believe little things eventually DO make other things change and change the future. Just think about the stuff around us that we did not have when we were kids, that today are so 'commonplace'.
Of course, societies do advance over the years. Each generation becomes better than the previous one ... as least that is the way it is supposed to work. I hear some mature friends and relatives say, "Oh for the good old days when life was so much simpler." I don't know if it was simpler or we were to young and naive to notice what our parents were going through from day to day. As kids, we drank out of garden hoses, jumped out of trees or off a bank into a pool or lake, rode our bikes all over town in and out of traffic. And all we had to worry about was to be home by dinner time and get our homework in on time. To our parents, there was more. Making mortgage payments on time, sticking it out in a job you had been in for 30 years, having enough money to replace the old refrigerator, and generally making ends meet so you could take the family on a descent vacation. Does this sound familiar?
Things really have not changed, but the way we live has. Starting in the kitchen, cooking has gotten much easier with modern appliances. Microwaves (which use to be called 'radar ovens'). Refrigerators that are much bigger, and you can see through the door or watch TV on the door. Not to mention you don't have to cook at all, just order it and it will be delivered to your door hot and ready to eat. And when you order your ready to eat meal, you called the place on a cell phone that does not hang on the wall or have cords, or you don't have to make sure there is no one else on the line so you can make your call. For the younger readers, that is called a 'party line'.
Then there are the automobiles we drive. The ones you don't even need a key to start it, you tell it an address and it will map out a route and speak the directions while you talk to your friends, on your foldable cell phone, about getting together over the delivered dinner at you energy efficient home. Entertaining your friends that evening as you all sit around on the patio watching the big football game on a TV that is one inch thick and is as big as the sliding patio doors, IN COLOR WITH SURROUND SOUND!
Reminiscing about my younger days makes me feel like my parents and old. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you remember appreciate the nice things you have because of the hard work and encouragement the past generations instilled in you. Of course there will be time when you feel your world you love feels like it is fractured and falling apart, just remember those 'good old days' and take a look around at what you have now. Then you can say, "We've done pretty good."
As the late president Ronald Reagan said," We see daily things as ordinary, when people in other times would consider extraordinary."
Take care and stay safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment