Changing World

The past week has been one of trying to sort out the benefits and the drawbacks to all the advances in technology and how both aspects impact my life, personally and for my grandchildren's future.   I love how we can be in touch with those we love so easily and so quickly, but the down side of that is that we hardly ever write anything down any more or take the time to memorize the phone number of a loved one.   In many ways the ease of modern times has made us lazy and stolen something from us.  I read a study last week regarding "Why Using Pen and Paper, Not Laptops, Boosts Memory"   It made me think about how little I use a pen and paper compared to say 5 years ago.    We have all heard about and probably noticed that many children today are more drawn to the screen of some sort, rather than to the great outdoors.  They are loosing something and there are numerous studies confirming our suspicions on that subject.  It goes deeper though, this has been long in coming, this change in how we live and how we do things.   When I was recovering from my knee surgery, I watched TV quite a bit.  It was hard to read or knit because of pain medication so I turned on the TV.  I couldn't endure all the violence of the new stuff so I watched OLD TV shows, from the 50's and early 60's.   I had forgotten so much of the things we used to do.  Get up to change the station. Get up to answer the phone.  Get up to do so many things we now just sit and hit a button for.  I watched at the Cleavers washed dishes together and talked, and how they sat around the table to eat together twice a day, etc. My life has been like that since that day we got married 36 years ago.  Maybe I have been caught in some time warp in some ways, by choice of course.  But we always ate together as a family, and washing dishes time was always conversation time for the children.  Since Emery retired, we do that together and hang the laundry together.  We talk about everything during those moments.   This week I also watched a TED talk that addressed just how much we are going beyond the safe boundaries of maintaining a safe environment.  It was shocking just how much of a jump we made after the 1950's.    I don't think we need to go backwards, but I do think we need to be more mindful of what things we are loosing in the midst of all this rapid change through technology.  Just this morning I heard how social media is making monogamy outdated.  The inventor of the Hashtag came out and said, "Non-monogamy is the way of the Future"   And, sad to say, enough people will buy into this mentality and start to want all of us to accept it as fact.   
People are rushing around in a state of stress, wishing for a slower life, wishing for a quieter place to find a peaceful moment, but working so hard so they can own more of this stuff that is stealing from us the very thing we wish we had.  Simplicity.    I love my simple life, but even I have to watch that all this modern technology not take over my life.  I love my cell phone, love my computer, the laptop etc, but when I find myself sitting next to my husband, texting him, its a problem and we correct it.  When I discovered my handwriting was getting sloppy and not very pretty, I realized that I need to write more.   No more shopping lists made on the iPhone, but handwritten at the kitchen table.  Small things but with perhaps a bigger impact on us than what we know.   Simplicity works for us.  Hauling in wood for the stove, spinning wool in the quiet of the morning, to weave with or knit with, calming the soul more than hours spent on the computer. Cooking from scratch, baking bread each week, praying for my family the entire time I knead the dough.  Washing dishes by hand, talking, laughing.  Playing board games or putting together a puzzle in the evening instead of watching someone being tortured on TV.   Living life deliberately, for peace of mind and a good nights sleep.  Living for God, and living for something more than just the moment I am in.