Memories
One of my fondest memories is me as a little girl, I guess I was about 7, sitting on the concrete porch of my house with my very best friend, Nicole. We lived in Louisianna. It was a nice warm day, we didn't have school, and we were playing and listening to the radio.
"He rocks in the tree-top all a day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' that song
All the little birds on J-Bird St.
Love to hear the robin goin' tweet tweet tweet"
Nicole and I knew every word to that song and we sang it at the top of our lungs. I love this simple memory not for what's in it, but what's not. We were so innocent, we didn't have a care in the world. We didn't know anything about debt, politics, or the day-to-day struggle it took our parents to make sure we had food on the table and roofs over our head. We weren't worried about our future. We weren't afraid of anything except our parents getting mad at us. It's a pure childhood memory and I am sorry to say that today's 7 year-old will probably never know how it feels.
Now our children have to worry about predators. They have a war looming over their heads. A lot of 7 year-olds have had to deal with mommy and daddy never coming back home. Their lives are affected by high gas prices, pollution, and gangs. They can't leave their houses without worrying about getting kidnapped, raped, beaten, or recruited by the military. They are so much more aware of this world than we were at 7 and it's so, so sad. Today's 7 year-olds worry about the image and whether or not to do drugs or have sex. They are in therapy. They sprout words like global warming and mass destruction in their everyday conversations. They have to worry about being sued if they break anyone's window with a baseball. TV, video games, and computers have stolen away their imaginations. They can't even listen to songs on the radio without having to hear "beep, beep, beeeeeep."
How hard parents must work to keep their children sheltered. And today you can't really shelter them that much without doing even more harm. There are things children have to know now, unpleasant things. It's so sad.
What happened?
"He rocks in the tree-top all a day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' that song
All the little birds on J-Bird St.
Love to hear the robin goin' tweet tweet tweet"
Nicole and I knew every word to that song and we sang it at the top of our lungs. I love this simple memory not for what's in it, but what's not. We were so innocent, we didn't have a care in the world. We didn't know anything about debt, politics, or the day-to-day struggle it took our parents to make sure we had food on the table and roofs over our head. We weren't worried about our future. We weren't afraid of anything except our parents getting mad at us. It's a pure childhood memory and I am sorry to say that today's 7 year-old will probably never know how it feels.
Now our children have to worry about predators. They have a war looming over their heads. A lot of 7 year-olds have had to deal with mommy and daddy never coming back home. Their lives are affected by high gas prices, pollution, and gangs. They can't leave their houses without worrying about getting kidnapped, raped, beaten, or recruited by the military. They are so much more aware of this world than we were at 7 and it's so, so sad. Today's 7 year-olds worry about the image and whether or not to do drugs or have sex. They are in therapy. They sprout words like global warming and mass destruction in their everyday conversations. They have to worry about being sued if they break anyone's window with a baseball. TV, video games, and computers have stolen away their imaginations. They can't even listen to songs on the radio without having to hear "beep, beep, beeeeeep."
How hard parents must work to keep their children sheltered. And today you can't really shelter them that much without doing even more harm. There are things children have to know now, unpleasant things. It's so sad.
What happened?
posted by Barbarian02003 | Friday, July 28, 2006
1 Comments:
Very well said! It seems the older our civilizations gets the more innocence is lost.
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