Every generation thinks that theirs are the more difficult times and that a generation ago people had it easy. I am no exception. Things were much simpler when I was growing up. Life was maybe not as full of technology as it is today but it was much easier to live in. I remember happiness being lot easier to get and pass around than it is now. But there seems to be a catch. Maybe I am confusing between living in a protected childhood then and being the one to provide the protection for my family now.
I think therein lies the secret. Life was simpler then because my parents worked hard to make it so for me. I was more relaxed because the things I had to do then were very few and very uncomplicated. It looks happy in retrospect because I had no real responsibilities, everything was taken care of for me. Now there are a hundred decisions to make each day and so many demands on my time that I start wondering whether things are ever going to get done. I am whining, its true, but the reason is that I am trying to figure out the changes in my life from then to now. Its not easy.
My problem is that when things get too much, I say no to everything. That isn’t always the best solution because I end up missing out on many things which would have actually been more help if I had allowed them to happen. I tend to close up everything including myself. Not the best way to deal with things.
One thing is sure. There is a marked difference in the lifestyles from those a generation ago. It may not be more difficult but it is a lot different. I know my parents are forever struggling to make sense of technology which they must use to make their lives more simple – like cell phones, computers, internet, DVD players; but for them it is more difficult to adjust to these changes. My eight year old daughter seems born ready to deal with these things. She handles technology like it was her birthright and for some reason technology responds to her as well. Even my two year old daughter knows how to change the channels and the volume on the TV remote while my mother will stare at it for a while and then press the buttons with uncertainty.
There is another thing. The wonder is gone. I remember when I was small the world was full of wonder. There was so much to be fascinated about. I guess that alone made the journey through youth a lot easier to handle. Life does seem less complicated when you are constantly gawking at it. Now the only wonder is that things manage to work at all and that is more sarcastic in nature than a reflex to curiosity. I get bored faster as I get older and it makes being decisively enthusiastic about life in general even harder.
So have I worked out a solution for myself? No, I’m still working on it. Eastern philosophy suggests that the wonder will return as I get older. As we get older, we begin to realize that the time we spent on apparently important things was a waste and that there is nothing more important than say family, flowers on the roadside or the stars in the sky. But there is a time for that, we can’t realize it till we come of that age.
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