I love this song for the simple reason that it combines the single most important thing in some's lives with the one thing that should be the single most important thing in everyone's lives (Technology and God... I'll let you decide which one belongs to which category).
Today, I'm sick. I'm lying on our fouton with a box of tissues (Puffs plus Vicks :D), 2 blankets, and my pups curled up at my feet. I've got a massive amount of bodily fluids exiting through my nasal cavity and a headache in the anterior/dextrad portion of the most superior portion of my body due to pressure build-up (Dr. Shaeffer would be proud of that statement). In other words, a runny nose and a sinus headache over my right eye. I've completed 3-level 5 games of Sudoku on my phone, watched 2 episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians, and now... Well obviously I'm writing a blog entry. Origionally, this was because I wasn't sure what else to do. Then I decided to turn off technology and continue with my reading of The Purpose Driven Life. Great book, aweful attention span on my part. While reading a chapter that has nothing to do with technology, I started thinking about how I hadn't been paying much attention to Facebook lately and all of the things I've been able to accomplish since unconsciously doing so: I found out that I like to and am fairly talented at drawing (and painting). I did a months worth of laundry (sad I know), and I began reading the book that's in my hands and that I won't remember a thing of which I just read because I was thinking about Facebook, in a round-about way.
I've always prefered hand-written sentiments through snail-mail over email, texts, Facebook messages, or even typed letters through snail-mail. When reading a hand-written letter, you can see the person's emotions on the paper (especially tears). It's so much more meaningful and takes more effort than sending an email, so in return, more thought was put into it. Plus, doesn't everyone love getting letters and packages in the mail? Bills don't count.. It's fun to open a letter from a friend or relative and maybe see a Christmas card or a Wedding invitation. These simple things can heal relationships.
(Interjection: I'm watching our hound bite her nails right now. I've never seen an animal do that! haha! She's been watching Daddy too much.. lol)
Back on track now. Like I said, bad attention span. They're calling us the iGeneration. That's great advertisement for Apple, but bad news for those of us who remember what it was like to play in the dirt, jump in mud puddles and be hosed down before going inside, having a note passed to you in class by someone you like, feeling the pages of an old, worn-down novel and knowing what the inside of a new book smells like. How about spending hours raking leaves just to jump in the pile and send them all scattering across the yard again? Putting up the Christmas lights as a family? Sadly, now that all of my siblings and I are living on our own, we don't do that anymore. I miss it. Our "iGeneration" still knows what it feels like to do these things. The generation that's being raised now knows nothing of building cars and space ships out of empty boxes and actually running around in them, or making forts under bunk-beds and dining room tables. "The Goonies? What is that?".. I've heard that from college students. "They aren't a 'what', they're a 'who'!!" These kids know of Call of Duty, Halo, Fast and Furius, Twilight, Facebook, Myspace, and ipads/ireaders/kindle. Hey, I'm not throwing these things under the bus. I read twilight (and liked it), I have a facebook, I love Fast and Furious, and I want an ipad severely! These things are great! Without them, I would have been bored today since I'm sick. Keeping up with the Kardashians, NCIS, Bones, Law & Order SVU.. you get the point, they keep us company. The problem actually lies within the fact that our generation could be the last to truly understand the joys of games that don't take a PhD to make.
This technology extravaganza began with us and I'd love to say that it would end with us, but at this point, I'm not sure that's possible. What we can do, is ensure that our children know who the Goonies are for goodness sake. We can rake leaves with them and not care if they get scattered again. We can ensure that every child knows what it feels like to run through a sprinkler on a Summer day and how cold the water from the hose is when you're covered in mud and mom won't let you in the house. Ahh.. the simple things in life. Well, get to it iGeneration! I'll bet ya my kids have the best box space craft you've ever seen! ;)
