I sometimes try and see the world through my niece’s eyes. And it’s terrifying. I know I’m lucky to have grown up in a time before social media, before we walked around with small computers in our pockets that controlled our minds and tracked everything we do. I know I couldn’t live without technology because I’m now useless at basic skills like remembering phone numbers and navigation, but God the world they are walking into… I don’t envy them.
So for Christmas instead of presents I took them to the aquarium/reptile den in Scranton, NY. By the time we got to the fish they were bored. Either they don’t like fish as much as snakes or we reached the end of their attention span, I don’t know.
I do know that entertainment for them isn’t as physical as it used to be. They don’t read books made of paper, they don’t play outside until the dark creeps in, and the June bugs come out, they don’t pull the blades of grass from its sheath, carefully, carefully so it doesn’t snap. They don’t have buttons to press, the wait to rewind a movie, to fast forward. Their entertainment is instantaneous and untouchable.
So when they pet Bubba the Argentine black and white tegu or the sea urchins and Starfish in the tank, I hope for a brief moment they felt connected to the world. Really felt it. Not the way we feel so much these days, through tempered glass.