Thursday, February 26, 2015

Don't conform.



Today, as i busy myself at home cleaning out my refrigerator and washing the dishes, i get the faint scent of farm--every time i move.

It wafts through my hair, off my clothes and into my nostrils like the glorious scent of all things good.

The smell of farm.

The smell of barn.

Makes me happy.  

I guess it has for awhile now.

Today i drove up to the farm where i get my milk.  And as usual, it was a trip i anticipated.  There's just something about driving North.



As i am home now, i think about those small farmers--my friends--and i am so glad to know them..

So glad for them. 

As the sun has been making its debut earlier and earlier these mornings and staying up later and later; with each passing day, i feel happy.

What makes me happy about going to the farm to get my milk isn't just the milk. It isn't just the people. It isn't the amazing amount of information that i gain each time. Its not even the fact that i can walk through and visit the cows if it want.

Its a combination of it all.

I can't describe it. My words can not depict the joy it brings me to be with salt of the earth people.

As i sat listening to the radio and doing dishes--smelling random reminders of my morning drifting through the air.  I felt so happy.

It felt like this, this, is what we are missing in the world.

Its whats wrong with the world.

The absence of good, hard working, knowledgeable people, who give 100% of their lives to something good. Something better. The select few who, without conscious thought, only know one gear: blood, sweat and tears. They give it all, 'cause its just what they do.

Where are more people like that?

You don't see them. Because they're busy looking up dumb facts on their phones, taking naps, watching days of netflix and taking double chinned selfies of themselves.

That's where our future sits, people.

In the hands of a different breed of humans.

The generation of "smart-phone-dummies".

Does no one get worried about that? 

Are we so sure of the path that we are taking that we never look up to check ourselves and to see if we are still heading in a direction that is good?

Or do we just accept it?

Our kids are hooked on pornography. Our kids use snapchat to communicate. Our kids are drinking $5 coffees, and talking on iphones that they don't even work to pay for!? They laugh out loud and expect you (the person sitting closest to them) to "get the joke" that they just read--ON THEIR PHONE! When they need information they don't sit and ponder it--forcing their dulled little brains to work, to actually think. No, they just ask Siri.

DOES NO ONE CARE!?!

I refuse to go with the flow on this. 

"Technology is our future".  Its always the same answer.

But instead of conforming to it, i have to ask myself , "should it be?"

Has it cured cancer?  Will it cure cancer?  Can it cure cancer?  In instances, yes--it has helped tremendously.

But has it also killed our nation? Has texting worthless and frivolous texts killed our loved ones? Are kids missing because they met a man who said he was a child on a social media site? Are 12 year olds attempting to kill their classmates because "slender man" told them to? Is bullying a classmate or filming a fight resulting in mass child suicide because kids can't handle this stuff? Is that really the way our future is headed?

Whaaaat the WHAT?! 

What has the benefit of having the internet--attached to you at every moment of every day--really done except entitle us to instant gratification in all areas of our life?

Parents are fighting an invisible battle (if they are even fighting at all).  How do you help a child find balance in a world of app after app after app?  How do you save a child from drowning in the pressure of peers when the fight is often invisible to the parents. How can you protect when there is a new account that gets set up, a new app to hide themselves and a new person tormenting or tempting your child all via the world wide web.

You can not protect, nor prepare a child for this. I don't believe it. Something, someone will sweep them away when no one is looking. Because how CAN we be looking? Its nearly impossible.

Does no one care!

I feel like a broken record these days. All you cynics can point out that posting an anti technology blog using the exact technology that i am fighting to be ironic. 

Its not. 

You're not being cute by saying it.  I'm a grown up, with a computer that plugs into the wall that doesn't have to be with me at all times.  So spare me, mmmkay.

Does technology have a purpose? Absolutely. 

But is the need to communicate through it, by it, on, and and in it 24/7 healthy for our already undiscilplined youth a good thing? Absolutely not.

I'll fight it tooth and nail at this house.

I can promise you that.

And i hope other parents finally put their foot down and stop conforming. 

Just say, "No!" for heavens sake.

No they don't need a phone that distracts them from their school work, they don't need itunes being streamed into their little mushy brains all day and night, they don't need to know what is going on around them through every social media sight.

Tell 'em to pick up a shovel, already!!

For the love of all that is good--make your kid sweat.

Make your kid work.

Make your kids feel the sunshine.

Make your child think.

So that the rest of us don't have to live in a world of self indulgent, spoiled, self-righteous, entitled, little dummies!

I know i am passionate about this. And i know 99% of you can make an excuse why your kid isn't one of "those kids".

And maybe you're right.

But i doubt it.

Today i smell like barn. I am relaxed, i am grateful, and i am content--knowing that good does exist and that i will do everything in my power to raise a salt of the earth household. They may not be perfect--heaven knows--but at least they will face life with their head UP........instead of looking down at a screen.

Of that, i can promise you.

Now, go dig a hole already.