Simpler Times

A few years and two children after my husband and I married, we gathered in front of a TV along with my small crowd of in-laws. One of my brothers-in-law had converted a collection of home movies into the latest cutting-edge technology: VHS tapes. We watched the black and white antics of twenty-seven cousins who grew up closer than many siblings do. As the tape played, I began to marvel at my mother-in-law and her sisters. I only had two children and often enough felt like sanity was just beyond my reach. Here were three women with twenty-seven children between them. And no, they were not sweet, calm, book-loving children that never gave their parents cause for hair-tearing. They were lively, spirited, wrestling, yelling, prank-pulling, Little Rascals-worthy normal children.

As one Easter, somewhere in the 1960s, scrolled across the screen, and these cherubic children in their clean, pressed, darling Easter attire paraded down the front steps of my husband's boyhood home, my marveling reached a crescendo. In my awe, I asked my mother-in-law, "how did you do it?"

She didn't shake her head in pity at my lack of parenting prowess. She didn't dive into a well-rehearsed child-rearing lecture. She simply sighed and said, "the times were so much simpler."

That was it. The key. The morsel of wisdom I'd been holding my breath to hear: life was simpler.

This week's Introverts Thrive! assignment is to look back over the past half century or so and consider the changes that have occurred in our culture that create the overstimulating environment in which we now live.

Here are a few of my thoughts:
* Streets and highways are more congested, and almost everyone is in a hurry.
* Advertising: it bombards our senses from every direction!
* Junk email and newsletters 
* Smart phones - so we can gather information, buy things, check email, text, and stay connected via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and a myriad of other apps
* Bluetooth, so we can do all of the above hands-free (lest we have to unplug to use the bathroom)
* Thanks to all the on-screen options, typing a Word document is more stimulating than typing on the humble, and all but extinct, typewriter.

I'm not anti-technology. In many ways, I love the doors it opens for me. But what I'm beginning to realize is that I've allowed these devices too much control over my time. While their place in our culture is a challenge for those of us who are affected by the stimulation they bring into our lives, they are not the enemy.

Affording them more room in our lives than is healthy is.

So this week, while you work on your list and dream of simpler days, keep a foot in the 21st century and show your gadgets who's boss.


I will be unplugged next week, and although I may have a guest blogger, we won't have an Introverts Thrive! assignment.