The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s an idiom that rings true in some instances and doesn’t apply at all for others.
Take relationships and marriage for instance. Back in the day, couples who lived far away from each other had to rely on letters and the occasional visit to keep in touch.
You could ask a person how they were feeling and by the time they received the letter, their mood could have changed numerous times. Thankfully the postal system worked well in those days and you didn’t have to really worry about the mail going missing or getting delayed.
Nowadays, girls get upset if you don’t reply to their messages within a few minutes.
It doesn’t matter if you’re busy, failure to reply means that you’re obviously cheating on them or have better things to do than chat to them.
In the olden days, you could meet a person only a few times before you’re eventually married.
Now you live with a person, spend years together and then eventually realise it isn’t going to work and move on. Parenting and growing up has also changed. Before it was all about being outside, whether you were playing in the mud, making mud cakes or out in the street enjoying a game of cricket under the streetlights. Games are all digital now. When last have you seen hopscotch drawn in your street with chalk?
It was everywhere you went before.
Nowadays kids are indoors, glued to TV screens and computers or cellphones.
They know more about what happened in Supernatural or Gossip Girl than they do about the news in their towns or country.
Parent’s are too scared to let their children play outside in case they bruise their knees or get scratches. Growing up in the past, if you didn’t get a bump or scratch while playing, you weren’t playing right.
All the neighbours knew each other and children were constantly in each other’s yard, playing together. Now high walls and barbed wire separate us from even knowing our neighbours names.
As easy and convenient life has become, why not live a little in the past.
Teach your kids about hopscotch (if you remember how its played), encourage them to have fun outside and play with other kids and write a letter to someone. Just like the good old days when we had Penguin Pen Pals.
