CHANGE

Opinion by: Linda Kirby/WGON

I don’t think many people love change. But, I’m sure there are some. However, for us mature people over 50, we don’t like change. We’ve seen a lot of life and what change has brought and we know that it’s not often a good change we get. It may start out being sold as good but once we have lived with it a short time, we see that it was terrible. Much of the change was considered great and moving us forward in technology. However, we see that with that new technology, much undesirable change came along with it.

I recall the old phones that was heavy and could not be moved around. They just sat on a table usually in the hallway of a home or a living room. You didn’t talk long on that phone because the receiver weighed so much. For a parent, that was a good thing. But, teens didn’t spend any time on the phone because they were with their friends all day. Then as “change” took hold and that phone began to morph, it’s now a device that has the young people glued to it so much that personal relationships are now a thing of the past. Yes, that change was nice and had it’s good side, but it had many bad things attached to it. Like, kids don’t know how to interact in person with a person. They don’t have real friends around them only people online that they call friends but have never seen them or had a relationship with them. If they do have friends in person, they text one another constantly without actually talking on the phone. The art of conversation is not developed and trying to converse with a kid today is an experience that many mature people would rather go without having again. All this makes me long for the days of the old heavy black phones.

There was a big change in the world that was truly a wonderful change, but again, with it was a very evil side. I speak of the internet. Yes, it’s great to have information at our fingertips. But, there is more than just information at our fingertips to be found online. The dark side of this world is there as well. It’s great to be able to email family and friends instead of hand writing a letter. They get the email immediately, while the “snail mail” takes about a week to reach them. However, I’m hearing that people sure get more love out of a hand written letter than an email. I have to agree. It’s great being able to stay informed so easily on all kinds of events. But, now days, we find that part of this new change isn’t liked by those who control people’s thinking so they do another change. It’s called censorship. In my mind, it’s the same thing as book burning. In my day, you got information from books. Today, we get it from the internet. So, if they censor your ability to get different views on any subject from the internet, it’s the same thing as burning books.

Yes, it’s nice to have air conditioning in the summer and central heat in the winter. I do recall standing in front of an old wood stove heating up “buns” while the cold wind blew outside. Talk about “hot cross buns”! That wood stove was not only to heat the house but it was for cooking as well. Boy! The meals grandma cooked on those old wood stoves would make one salivate like an old bull dog! Yes, central heating is nicer but those days of gathering around the kitchen table to chat with the family and stay warm and taking in the sweet savorof what grandma was cooking is so missed. Many great conversations were had at those kitchen tables. Many problems of the world were solved. Many political conversations lit up the ears of the opposite political persuasion. The thing was that we could talk about it without getting mad. Much gossip went on, even though the religious didn’t feel it was gossip, because they always said “bless her heart”. LOL Advice on how to handle an unruly 3 year old was discussed while the women snapped the beans for the ham to be cooked together. Oh, how great those conversations were. I haven’t had that experience since central heat came on line.

Air conditioning is great too. I have nothing bad to say about that! But, those hot summer days when the family just couldn’t take anymore, we’d go downtown and “window shop” in the stores that did have air conditioning. The stores would have a big sign in the window to draw you in because they figured you’d feel guilty enough for using their air conditioning to get cool that you’d buy something. The family was together, enjoying an ice cream cone, the park, the “window shopping” together. Now, it’s a treat if you can get a family member on the phone.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is, change is nice on the one hand but it seems to divide the family. The family doesn’t seem to do things together as a family anymore. Many don’t even eat at the kitchen table together anymore. Kids don’t look up from their phones to have a conversation with a family member. I guess there’s a trade off. You get change with good stuff added but you get change with more bad stuff than good. At my age, I ask myself: “was change worth it?” My answer is...”NO”.