30 Day Project: Day 3 (Nature)-What A Life We Lead

I’m parked at my youngest son’s soccer practice.  It’s 43°F!  The sun is going to be behind the mountain in less than a half hour.  It’s going to get colder.  My son is dressed for a blizzard, but he’s smiling and kicking the ball around with the rest of the snowmen on his team.

The parents, however, are a different story.  The car in front of me is filled with a little brother and his dad.  They are lounging in the back of their SUV with the seats folded down watching a DVD.  I can’t tell you which one because the sun glare is too strong, but I can assure you it’s either a purple dinosaur or a red muppet.

The car behind me is filled with two younger sisters, two ipods and headphones.  Their mom has let them crawl up into the front of the car and they are sprawled out across the dashboard tapping their toes to the music on the front windshield.  They are about six and seven.

The dad two cars in front of me is reading a book on a nook or some type of e-reader.  He has it above his head while he’s leaning back in his seat and can see him sliding his finger across the screen to turn the page.

I am sitting in the passenger seat with my laptop on my lap.  I’m typing this in the comfort of my car, which is slowly beginning to cool down as the sun dips behind the peak.  My iphone is sitting on the corner of my computer and is on speaker phone as I chat with my girlfriend, who is also sitting at her child’s practice across town. 

Are we spoiled?  Are we lazy?  Are we efficient?  Are we lacking creativity?  Are we smarter than the generations before us?  Are we caught up in the gadget black hole of life?  I’m torn how I feel about it. 

It’s times like these that I so wish I could talk to my great-grandma Josie and get her opinion.  She rode the wagon into St. Paul to sell eggs with her father and made only a few dollars after being there for two or three days.  She didn’t GPS her way there, yet they made it.  She didn’t Google the going price for eggs to see what income they might bring home.  She didn’t plug in her electric blanket into the wagon either. Minnesota gets cold.  I know.  I lived there.

I think about the pace of our lives and the conveniences that we have so often.  I wonder.  I really wonder if it’s all “better” to be faster and quicker and know everything instantly.  I don’t know how I feel about it sometimes, but it’s definitely something to ponder.

An update on the boys still outside….it’s colder now.  The digital thermometer on my car  still says 43°F.  The wind is blowing harder though.  They are running and running and running.  No gadgets, just running.  When they get in the car, I’m sure they will ask for me to turn on the seat warmers and to turn on the backseat heating vents.  What a life we lead at this moment and time.  What a life we lead.