February 7
Oh my goodness! Did I feel old today! Chris and Jess were rummaging in the attic today when I could hear giggles coming from upstairs.
This could only mean two things, either Chris farted or Jess was making silly faces again.
"What are you two up to?" I asked.
The two of them came running down the stairs chasing each other.
"What is this?" They asked. I looked to see what "that" was. Chris was holding an old 45 record in his hands. I took it from him. I looked at the label, "When I need you" by Leo Sayer.
"It's a record", I told him.
"What's that?" Jess asked. I looked at them with total disbelief.
"What do you mean what is that?" I asked. "It's a record album; you put it on a record player." "What does it do?" Chris asked again.
"You take this and you put it on a record player. It has an arm with a needle on it. You bring the needle down and the record goes round and round and music comes out!" I said with a smile.
Chris and Jess looked down at the record then looked up at me. They looked down at the record again then at each other. They busted out laughing hysterically.
"No, stop kidding, for real mom, what is it?" Chris asked.
"Is it a Frisbee?" Jess asked me.
"No, it's not a Frisbee and no, I'm not kidding!" They kept looking at me funny.
I scratched my head for moment and finally said, "It's a music CD from back in the day!"
"Oh, why didn't you just say so then, Man, these things are weird looking!"
They ran off tossing my beloved Leo back and forth like a Frisbee.
Boy I felt old. It had never occurred to me before how really fast technology was moving. I remembered when I was growing up that 8 track tapes were a big deal!
Now if I showed one of those to my kids they would probably think it was a brick or something!
From there we advanced to cassette tapes, VCRs and of course the big one, personal computers. We saw an old movie one day and my kids wanted to know what the big room full of bleeping noises and blinking lights was.
They just about fell out of their chairs when I told them that "it", was a computer!
Not a room full of them, just one!
Now we seem to be going at warp speed pace towards smaller electronics and better gadgets to make our lives easier.
The funny thing is between my beeper, cell phone, e-mail, PDA and answering machine I am so busy returning something to someone I don't have time for anything else.
We humans seem to have a knack for making more work for ourselves in the name of convenience! A few years ago we had a power outage. It was the best thing that had happened to our family in a long time.
No TV, no video games, no computer or radio.
We sat in our living room by candlelight and did something we don't ever do enough of, we talked!
We told stories about our youth, the past, our dreams and hopes. Even though the lights were only out for a few hours we did more bonding in that small time than we had all year.
Sometimes I think our ancestors had it right. They did things the simple way. You know early to rise and early to bed. They worked hard and, played hard.
Yeah, I know, some argue that the life expectancy was a lot shorter back then with all the diseases and all.
But think about it for a moment. What is better? To live eighty years in front of a TV never really even talking to the people that are supposed to be closest to us?
Or forty years working together, talking and learning from each other?
If you talk to your child for an hour what do you gain?
If you play computer games for an hour what do you gain? See my point?
I live life even more fully when I listened to my son Alexis tell me all about what he did in school.
I learn new things. I see the world through his eyes. I experienced it just like he did because he shared it with me and more importantly, I listened.
How much bonding am I doing with a square box that sits in my living room?
I guess that is why our family loves camping so much. Because every year for 2 weeks we are one. No interruptions!
It's only our kids and our family enjoying each other and God's awesome earth. We count down the days until it's time to go again. Surprisingly even the older kids still enjoy it as much as we do.
Don't get me wrong.
I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn't use any of today's modern conveniences. I am a tech junkie just like the worse of them! But in all honestly I would rather experience it firsthand instead of just watching it on TV or playing it on a computer.
You know maybe I don't feel as old anymore. I may not be able to beat my boys at video games, but I can beat them up the mountain when we go hiking!
That's okay, wait until my kid's children think CD's and MP3's are weird and our computers are outdated!
What goes around comes around!
Although if my kids had seen my beloved Leo Sayer they would have definitely though that he was weird too!
