No poem today – just this …………..
I just saw a news article saying that Amazon would like to deliver our parcels by drone. The advantage of this, to the customer, is to get packages faster – I don’t need them faster. Amazon Prime is fast enough and what’s so wrong with waiting?
I like to meet the delivery guy at the door. I don’t want to live in a fully automated world with a sky full of drones. The kids love the idea of course, but me? NO THANKS!
This set me to thinking.
I grew up in a world where the sky was for the sun, the moon, stars, stars you could see clearly at night, clouds, rain, birds and planes. It wasn’t full of satellites bringing us bad news faster or surveillance cameras protecting us from what the world has become.
I am so glad I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I grew up in both rural and urban locations and it was always safe to go out. True, I did meet a couple of pedophile predators but my instincts on that were strong enough not to be lured and that instinct works face to face. There were always more vulnerable children of course but it’s far more dangerous to be groomed on the Internet.
A friend of mine, who is a teacher, recently told me that she read one of my poems about rural peace to a class of Hispanic urban teenagers. The nature images in the poem were from my childhood and were things they had never experienced or seen. One girl had tears in her eyes by the end of the poem. She said she wished she could go to a place like that. I wish she could too.
I didn’t have a mobile phone or Internet until my late 40’s and I communicated just the amount I chose to communicate. I even chose at one time in my 20’s to have no phone at all. I survived! Imagine! Fancy that! I didn’t die in an emergency or get stranded. I knew people. I had nearby neighbours who talked to me. The people in the local shops knew me. I was not in any way ‘cut off’ despite the fact I lived on the moors then and had to walk to the village.
I pity the children now with all their gadgets and computer games and no real freedom. Wandering the outside world with your friends or alone and taking an occasional risk is part of growing up. I suppose they will be better suited to the world ahead than I am but at least I know how to live when the power goes off.
It was also so much healthier to be out in the fields building hedgerow dens. In the summer holidays I was out with my bike or playing in the fields and woods from 9am to 6pm when I came home because I wanted my dinner and my packed food supply had run out.
When I lived in town I was in no danger either. One stabbing in our town was a major sensation, totally unheard of at the time. So, OK, London had the Kray twins and their like but criminals basically fought each other for territory and would never have taken an interest in the likes of me or the general public. Look at the world right now. Look at the gun crimes. The Kray Twins pale in comparison.
I think we have to admit that the world has gone seriously wrong and we can be sure that every bit of bad news will bombard us very fast while we are told so little about good things. Stressful isn’t it.
I am very sorry for the kids, but I am selfishly glad I am getting old because it means I wont have to see so much of the future.
I say ”thank you so very much for my childhood” because I am one of the last of the paradise kids.
