When I was growing up, we had never put a man on the moon, there were no cell phones, no personal computers, no iPads, no fax machines, no video games, no large screen TVs, no color TVs (part of the time), no electric cars, only a few medical breakthroughs and on and on and on. Alright, quit that. I know you were thinking, "Wow! I didn't realize Mike was that old!" I am that old.
But, here's what we did have,
- We played outside after dark. We never lost a kid.
- We walked to the store without an escort or a handgun.
- We slept over at a friend's house without having a construction crew follow behind us making repairs.
- We went to a movie without a grown up. Some only costs 10 Pepsi bottle tops.
- We recycled our Coke bottles for 5 cents each. All kids were entrepreneurs. Some of us delivered papers.
- We paid $.89 a gallon for gas, and most of it didn't come from the Middle East.
- We grew our own vegetables.
- We respected our leaders.
- We didn't talk back to teachers.
- We read books, played baseball, basketball, football, ran and rode bikes for fun.
- We competed in athletics because it was fun. Occasionally, someone was given a scholarship. It was always a surprise.
- We went to college to learn (OK, and maybe to pick up chicks).
- We called people who were older than we were, Mr., Mrs., Ms.
- We ate together as a family.
- We only spent what we had (no credit cards at all).
- We saved up to buy special items.
- We answered the phone without knowing who was on the other end.
- We took weekend long vacations.
- We knew every divorced couple in our town (there were that few).
- We knew every kid in our school with asthma. There was one.
- We knew every kid with autism. There were none.
- We knew every kid who had an allergy in our school. There was one.
- We knew every kid who had cancer in our school. There were none.
- We had a neighborhood of parents who had the authority to correct us. Spankings were reserved for our parents. Fortunately, they were rare.
- We said, "Excuse me, thank you, I'm sorry and pardon me, yes Sir, yes Ma am, etc."
- We had four TV channels, and one TV. Dad controlled the TV.
- We had one living room, no family room, no garage and we didn't need much.
- We almost always had one parent at home when school was out.
- And we longed for progress.
Well, progress has come over and over. How are we doing? I'm sure that list probably looks unbelievable to some, but ironically, we were happy, used our imagination and spent quality time with friends and family. Nobody sat at the table glued to a smart-phone. TVs, tablets and smart-phones weren't babysitters. Babysitters were babysitters.
We always progress from somewhere to somewhere. Progress is movement toward a goal or objective. We typically look at
progression as a good thing, but what progression actually means is that we move from here to there, or we change from this to that. If you drive to the store, you progressed from somewhere to the store. That may be good or not. Remember, as you long for progress, you leave something behind to get something that lies ahead. Our commitment to progress might best be best understood in a question, "Is it worth it?" Maybe. Maybe not.
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