Lately, I've been thinking back to the things I got to do as a kid. You know the places, I got to see or simply the opportunities that came my way. Compared to what my children get to do . . . well, there is no comparison. The other day, we had an unbelievable time swimming with manatees in Homosassa Springs in Florida. My kids were out there in their scuba gear, floating around manatees that swam past as if were the most normal thing in the world. When I was a kid, I didn't even know what a manatee was. Seriously.
I think it was then, as I sat on the boat freezing under a towel that I thought about h
ow lucky my kids are. But not only my kids -- most kids these days. I know quite a few kids that have things like yearly passes to Disneyland. Wow! When I was a kid, it was a special treat to go visit Micky (maybe) once a year if I was lucky, and I bounced around for weeks waiting for that special day. And the amout of toys they have! Plus the technology is out of this world. A Nintendo DSI can not only play games, but it has internet access, takes pictures, and makes moving cartoons. I used to ride my bike to an arcade to play pacman - LOL.
ow lucky my kids are. But not only my kids -- most kids these days. I know quite a few kids that have things like yearly passes to Disneyland. Wow! When I was a kid, it was a special treat to go visit Micky (maybe) once a year if I was lucky, and I bounced around for weeks waiting for that special day. And the amout of toys they have! Plus the technology is out of this world. A Nintendo DSI can not only play games, but it has internet access, takes pictures, and makes moving cartoons. I used to ride my bike to an arcade to play pacman - LOL.Sometimes I worry about spoiling my kids or wonder if they get to see too much too soon. What will excite them when they're twenty when they've already done it all and seen it all? But then I think that times are different. It's not a pacman world anymore. After all, they can learn Chinese on a Nintendo game these days - how awesome is that?
So I guess to prepare kids for the world to come, the more experiences they have the better. And if the experiences are more amazing and more intense than what I had, it's because life is more intense and calls for heightened encounters with the world. Hopefully, our kids will take these memories and experiences to continue to create and even more amazing world in the future.
What it means to me as a writer who still likes books rather than Kindles and Nooks, I don't know. I guess I'll just sit back and see what my kids, as well as those I teach or lead in scout activities do with the opportunities they're lucky enough to given.
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