Sometimes the world in which we live freaks me out...you can find out anything in seconds as long as you have an internet connection. And now unlimited information is portable, too, thanks to data plans and 3G networks and such. But is it useful?
Sometimes....no. Like when the GPS on my husband's phone/computer/squeegee/total gym told us that there was a traffic jam on I-69 in the middle of Nowhere, Indiana...but we were already in the jam with no way out.
Sometimes...yes. From the traffic jam, my husband could write his book critique for his class on his laptop in the car. We could call my mother-in-law on the road somewhere behind us and make sure they were ok and vice versa.
I had a good conversation with my Dad over the weekend along these lines. We started out laughing that my daughter has such good computer skills for being only 4. If you ever need a tutorial on the Nick Jr. or Playhouse Disney websites, let her know. We talked about how it's so different than the childhood either of us grew up with. Dad shared some stories about the computer at Cummins where my grandpa worked that took up entire rooms and had less computing power than a calculator, and the time share computer they had at their high school that didn't even have a monitor. It just did a print out of the commands you gave it. Those were the super cool technology advances of their day...a day that was not so long ago. By the fifth grade there was a computer in my school classroom with this new thing called a mouse, and by the eighth grade, there was a computer in our home where we got to connect to the Washington Elementary Bulletin Board. An amazing place where people could connect to each other via computer and share important experiences like games completely in text. Woo! Good times!
By nature, I am not one to dabble in all things techno-geeky. That's Frank's job. But I am so thankful for good things that come from technology. I can stream Christian radio stations and worship along. I can find new friends across the globe as well as re-connect with old ones. I can look up passages in the Bible by word or phrase or book. I can listen to the sermon I missed on Saturday at my church. There are some REALLY cool games and sites for kids these days. (PBS Kids has found a fun way to teach my preschoolers about fractions and probability!) I can find recipes that turn the three things I actually have in my fridge into something edible for dinner...
So today I'm amazed and thankful for good stuff that comes from God. Technology is a huge responsibility, of course. Like anything, you have to sort the good from the bad and be careful not to let it replace the Best (Thanks, media fast!) And sometimes that gets hard as things get complicated. But today I'm just basking in amazement and thankfulness. Because if I had to drag three kids out of the house AND put real clothes on to do all these things....well, I would probably become a sad hermit with kids who didn't know fractions and ate microwaved hot dogs every night.
7 comments:
Microwave hot dogs aren't bad. My husband prefers them. I prefer them boiled.
Yes, technology is great. I was telling my husband's cousin yesterday that only maybe 30 years ago, maybe I couldv'e found one of you for a pen pal, and it would have taken ten years to correspond as much as we do via internet. It has been, what, four months for us Beth?
Thirty years ago, that might have brought us to the point where you know that I teach CCD, and I know that you are a worship leader at your Church. Maybe. If we wrote long letters. It could just bring us to the point where I know that you have three kids, and you know that I have none. We have shared so much more than numbers and basic facts in the last four months, haven't we?
Add a little velveeta on the hotdogs and wrap em' up in a crescent roll and you have yourself a Redneck Gourmet supper!
NO GUILT!
I hear you on this post. I'm am also thankful and do have to watch myself.
I'm here alone most of the time, so I can't even imagine throwing three kids into my juggling act again!
Have you ever googled youself? Kind of weird finding yourself out on the web....
Annie - (that's what she said)
You know what I like besides how cool it is to laugh and cry and share a bit of our lives with each other?
Fried baloney sandwiches. (and cracking myself up.)
I can relate. My kids can't imagine a world without the ability to pause live TV.
I, on the other hand,touched my first computer in 9th grade.
BTW, I AM that sad little hermit who feeds her kids microwaved hot dogs. But they know fractions, doggone it.
I'm not saying my kids DON'T eat microwaved hot dogs. They do. For lunch. At least 2 times a week. They just don't eat them for dinner... Cuz we have fancy things like tater tots and tacos then.
And Steph, we still live in the land of analog TV and no DVR or Tivo or whatever it's called. So I'm not sure what we're going to do in 14 days or whenever it switches...
Beth, I posted a hot dog crock pot recipe in your honor at Paprika is Good, But Not in Coffee.
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