Got an email from a friend of mine today, that got me to thinking. It is all about those who grew up fifty years ago, there abouts. It is about how things have changed, at how stress is more, and yet, is more self inflicted than it used to be. How we have endured the Cold War, only to well, become zombies, in a sense. And you know it does make you wonder a little about our world, about the changes we have seen happen, and what might be in store for tomorrow, and the upcoming generations.
I’ll post the emai, for those who might want to read it, and I hope you do. It might make you contemplate what YOU do, and I don’t know, but it sure has gotten me to thinking, about my own life, my own future.
No, it isn’t one of those chain letters, but it does have some truths in it, that maybe we should reflect upon, given how things are these days.
BELOW IS THE EMAIL CONTENTS: (my further commentary continues after it.)
======================================================
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930′s, 40′s, 50′s, 60′s and 70′s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren’t overweight. WHY?
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times,we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it ?
======================================================
I mean technology is the buzz word these last few decades, but has it been for the good? As a writer of adult fiction, I examine how things have changed since I published my first story online. I think back to how I no longer use certain words, because they might offend the Religious Moralists, or the Word Police. I look back at my own life, at how I have changed, from where I used to be outside, constantly, and how driving was a treat, not a daily occurrence. How I used to walk to the grocery store or corner store that is a lot further than the one I go to today.
Kids today are glued to the phone, or to their video games. Even the wife is more occupied these days with playing his computer games, and his porn, than in going out, in taking our dog for a walk, or me, for that matter.
I look at my Dad, who died at 85, and who was constantly going out, each and every day. At how Mom, who is 91 still insists on going out to her weekly lunches, and I wonder, WILL I BE DOING THAT AT THAT AGE? WILL I EVEN MAKE IT TO EITHER OF THOSE AGES?
It is a scary thought, to sit back and be totally honest, about the life we lead. Whether it is our sex lives, or our ordinary existence, have we become complacent? Have we forgotten how things were, when we were younger, before computers, before the Internet?
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Internet, as it affords me the opportunity to work from home, to be here for Mom 24/7, but has it also made me fatter, lazier? I something think it has, but I also think that perhaps we have let ourselves become conditioned, by the advertising on the boob tube, to buy this, get this, use this, when the truth is, we really don’t need to buy that, use that, or get that.
Maybe we are simply abdicating our own thinking, to the will of big business, big labor, and special interest groups, because television, computers, make it all easier, make it so much more convenient. I mean we get our news now 24/7 but is it truthful news? Is it not just opinion, being spewed to our brains, so we won’t go out, won’t see that a whole world exists, beyond the cellular phones, the blackberries, the computer laptops and ipod phones?
Do we really need to watch videos on our mobile device? I mean on our computers we push for wider and bigger screens, then download feature length videos to view on our tiny mobile phone screens. I don’t know, but isn’t that a bit crazy?
The more I think about what was in that email, the more I wonder. Don’t you?
