We just celebrated the great sacrifices our ancestors made in order to procure a free society. I’ve been thinking about sacrifice; whether it is still in vogue and, if so, how. Like everything else, the meanings we attribute to such terms has evolved. In the early days of America, many people gave up careers, wealth, and even their lives, for a cause they believed in with all their might. So, what are we giving up today, and are those things making our lives better? Are we freer than a generation ago?
It seems we have sacrificed our children to technology. Ourselves, too, if we spend a lot of time on the internet or our phones. Where is the free time to take a book and a cold iced tea and sit on the porch at sunset? Is anyone at the back fence, or driveway, taking time to greet a neighbor? Have we sacrificed our family time to follow numerous sports, go to concerts, or take work home from the office?
Child sacrifice was common in some ancient cultures. Perhaps that too has evolved. How many kids today get to gather in someone’s yard for a pickup ball game or just ride over to visit a friend on their bikes? Do any of them get to play a sport on their own, with friends and no adult coaching or emphasis on competition in order to achieve a scholarship? Do we give them a chance to develop their imaginations?
Are parents sacrificing their lives, and any opportunity to just rest, by ferrying kids to soccer practice, dance lessons, or the like? Not to mention the money spent on travel and food on the road. No wonder it takes two incomes to survive these days, we demand so much extra that could be downsized.
I’m old. Times have changed. I get that. But ifl could give children and parents a gift it would be some of the perks of my early life. I used to lie on the grass in summer and watch ants. Look at all the kinds of grasses and wildflowers; pull off a blossom and suck the nectar out.
Climb a tree and ride to visit neighbors, dig worms for a Sunday family fishing trip. For parents, I’d wish a Sunday dinner at Granny’s and a nap or baseball game. Having neighbors drop by for a card game of an evening. Picnics with the whole neighborhood at the lake.
There was work; a lot of it, for kids and adults, but we learned to solve problems, cooperate, and converse with some degree of intelligence.
We’ve also sacrificed our kids, and the whole society, to sex. Maybe it began with Barbie.
For all the feminism movement, when the mantra was not to be seen as sex symbols, we now dress our daughters like rock stars for prom, and spend huge amounts of money on enhancing our appearance; men included.
I’m not sure anything can be simple anymore, or that anyone wants it to be. But it would be a start to examine our lives and priorities, and decide who and what drives our lifestyles.
Maybe make some individual choices, and make the sacrifice to endure pressure from peers when we learn to say no now and then.
Meet me here next week and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it. Or not.