I have flashes of insight into life every once in a while and have decided to try to get them down in writing before they're gone forever. As I was lying in bed this morning, listening to the girls watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I thought about what a great movie it and other old movies are. I lamented the "loss of innocence" that this world talks about all the time. You know it, the older generations are always telling the younger ones how much better it was 'back when'. I am guilty of it, too.
Then, I had that flash of perspective and wondered what people looking down from heaven, from say, the Rennaisance period, thought of my kids sitting in front of a TV watching this cartoon. Do they say, "Ackkk, look at those kids wasting their time, think of all the wonderful things in that world that they could be doing to better use their short life's existence!"? Or do they wish that they could have had something like a TV during their life's span? Or something else? I don't know, but I do know that it is good to take a longer view of the eternities when making our judgements on generations different than our own. Next time you feel like lamenting a loss, try to do just that. See if you don't feel that it ain't so bad.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Generational Context
Posted by The McKameys at 10:05 AM
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4 comments:
Thank you for the deep thoughts by Kate. My friend Dickie used to compare the present day to the "Pioneer days" all the time. It was funny at the time but when you really think about it if they had the conveniences we have now what would they be doing with their extra time? Now you got me contemplating!
You've always had deep insights into life. I've wondered those same things many a time. The only thing we can really do is to do better tomorrow than today and better today than yesterday. If we take all that we've learned from all that we've been taught and teach our kids then I think we'll be pretty good.
I've been reading My Antonia by Willa Cather, which is basically a biography of a boy from her hometown and his relationship with his friend, Antonia. It's set in Nebraska around the turn of the century. The book talks about long winters, long nights where there's nothing to do but talk with your elders or read a book by candle-light (pre-radio era). Now we have electricity, Internet, TV, and tons of things that take up our evening time. Cars with heaters so we don't have to stay indoors during the winter cold. It is interesting to think of other times and compare them to ours.
Kate, if you want to borrow the book, you can when I'm done. I like it a lot.
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