The “I”s Have It – and I Want It Back

Is it just ME or are you, too, experiencing that not much is the same as in “the good old days”?  Boy, do I sound old!

I remember my Mom saying she wouldn’t want to change places with her children or grandchildren.  How sad, I thought, as both of those generations had so much more than the post-Great Depression/WW II generation who are rightfully touted as “the greatest generation”.

She also said that what we couldn’t understand in the moment would become crystal clear one day.   I get it now.

Kids today have so much.  They have their iPhones,  their iPads, and their iPods.  While the technologies of “stuff” is great & may certainly create “ipportunity”, what might it have taken away?  Has the barter of one for the other been worth it; will it ever be?  “I” am not sure.

Do you remember simpler days when kids played outside after school and got dirty?  Do you remember just showing up at the usual meeting place or playground and being included? (BTW – we walked – uphill – both ways!) Do you remember when kids were kids and parents were parents and you found your friends elsewhere?

In the “i-era”, my fear – and that’s a strong feeling, but it’s an honest one, is that we are becoming i-solated, i-nternalized, and too i-ntrospective.   Is that an i-mprovement on the world condition or a giant step backwards?  Is the unsolicited  i-ntrusion on our privacy working for us or against us?

Not sure…perhaps, as Mom promised, we’ll know in 20 years, or so – when our thumbs have grown stronger and bigger and our list of friends (I’m talking real friends – the ones you can’t and don’t want to shake for 50-60 years; not the i-nternet ones) has shrunk. 

It’s not just the kids!  I’ve seen groups of adults (by chronological definition, anyway), who sit in the presence of each other yet are engaged with one not in their presence.  No kidding!  A table of 6 “grown-ups”, none of whom were speaking to each other yet all i-ngaged in a remote conversation!  What?

Soak in the moments.  Steal back the opportunity to be present when in the presence of another.  SPEAK  i-nstead of texting.  I promise you this:  all the i-mails, the texts, the messages will wait for you – but THIS moment will never come again.  “I” guarantee THAT!

So, IS it just me, or does a one-on-one conversation when someone doesn’t take a call and make you feel less i-mportant in the moment sound good right about now?

If you’re up for it… buy another vowel…

May I suggest this one…buy a

“U”