The picture you see above is the picture I have on my computer as my desktop background. Although you can't see it very clearly, the woman sitting in the chair is surrounded by books. The books have titles that she's been yearning to learn about ~ birds, fish, painting, architechture, to name a few. It reminds me of me ~ curious about everything ~ books all around, waiting to give me answers to all my burning questions! Or, books to entertain me with a great story, or give me something else to think about! In addition to books, the internet is such a great resource to all the things I am curious about and have bumbling around in my brain.
In January my sister Connie and I took a trip to Disneyland to celebrate my retirement. But it could have been called the trip of "I wonder why . . . ?" We are both very observant and curious people, so the trip down Interstate 5 was full of things to look at and wonder at and ask questions to each other. Sometimes we had opinions of whatever we were looking at - might have been - could have been - was going to be in the future - or - what "it" was in the past. On the way home we decided we could write a book to explain the answers to all our many questions that we found interesting on highway 5. Actually not a bad idea - research - go ask questions of people - find out "why" - and write it all down so other people wouldn't have to wonder like we did.
Kenny and I just took a quick trip to Redding and saw all sorts of thing we were curious about - a new grove a trees that seemed to be planted to close to each other, fields we thought were probably rice fields, new crops starting to grow and wondering what they were. We decided it should be a law that "they" have to put signs up to show what kind of trees they were, that it was a rice field (or some other kind of field) and what were those crops that were just getting started. Habits we both learned from long trips in the car.
As a child my family spent a lot of time in the car. If Dad wasn't working, we were going somewhere. And on these trips we did all sorts of stuff to keep ourselves occupied. We would sing along with the radio, notice all sorts of stuff out the window that either we noticed and spoke up about or Mom and Dad pointed out to us. Of course there was always fighting with each other. But Dad wasn't going to put up with that for long. We played games - guessing games, counting games, you name it, we probably played it.
Kenny and I played the same kind of games with our kids. Actually his family played alot of car games that our family hadn't played, so I learned and played right along with the kids. The ABC game, how many miles to the next town game, how many whatever color car you picked game and of course the usual looking out the window and wondering - what's that? As our kids got older, walkman's became popular and although they could still hear what was going on their participation was less and less.
Today what I see is a generation of kids who are thoroughly entertained while riding in the car or RV but the interaction between parents or grandparents and the children seems to have dwindled. I am guilty of getting DVD players for both sets of my grandchildren and Nintendo DS systems for most of them. These types of entertainment the kids love watching and playing - and - for the most part - the games and movies keep them pretty quiet. But, they aren't noticing the cool trees and the big mountains and the pretty lake. They are not looking for signs and trying to win the ABC game, hoping somehow to find an x or a q. They are not looking out the window and wondering. I miss that interaction, the wondering of why something is the way it is.
So maybe this summer I'll try and declare a time of looking out the window with Grammy, finding some cool stuff we can talk and wonder about. In the motorhome we have it is hard to look out ahead of us so trying the ABC game might be hard but I think we can try something that gets us interacting and having fun at the same time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!!!
My thought to leave with you this time is: The world is filled with wonder, go out and look for it, find it, examine it and talk about it!!
Until next time . . .
I remember those rides in the car with your family! Going up to blue lakes? I feel lucky to have been along on a few of those trips! We had great times and yes, families interacting was so important back then. We weren't discussing the worlds issues, nor tearing down a neighbor because we didn't like their views or their belief system. As a family we were as you say, looking out the window and finding all the beauty to talk about. We talked about fields that now had houses, we talked about trees that had been so small but had grown so large. My grandaugher Marlena has such an inquisitive mind. She actually forces us back to that time of looking and wondering and enjoying the most simple things around us. Those were the days!
ReplyDelete