My parents divorced when I was in the sixth grade. It was so long ago that I often find it difficult to remember specifics. What I do remember is that, according to the divorce settlement, my dad got the television and my mom got the microwave. Therefore when we were at dad's place, we were able to watch all of our favorite television shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Who's the Boss. When we were at our mom's, we got to quickly heat up our leftovers with the turn of a nob on a microwave which likely weighed a hundred and fifty pounds.
It was the mid/late-80's and for my family it was a luxury to have a television set with a remote control. Perhaps other homes had more than one television, but we were not one of them. As a mom, almost twenty-five years later, I think my own mom was smart in choosing the microwave because it simplified her life and forced her children to entertain themselves with boardgames and playing outdoors. For my brother and I it was torture to be without a television. We were like, "Are you kidding me? How can we survive without The A-Team?"
Regardless...we survived. We are all happy adults with families of our own, blessed with a loving mom and stepdad, dad and sweet fiance, and many stories to tell when we come together. As I write this blog, I think of all that my children have in respect to what I had growing up. We are still a one television household, although that one television is a 42-inch plasma. My children will likely never have a TV in their bedrooms because I find it unnecessary. We have a microwave and use it daily. My children have no idea what it would be like to live in a world where pizza flavored bagel bites are not able to be heated in less than three minutes. We have a smaller yard compared to the massive one I was blessed with as a kid (the drawback of living in an area where houses cost a lot and land is minimal). Despite the yard size, my kids have inherited my love of playing outside; digging, exploring, soaking in the sunshine.
The world my children live in is filled with computers, video games, cell and cordless phones that enable me to put away laundry while chatting with my sister. We have CD players and DVDs...no more renting large VCRs from the video store on family movie night. The days of waiting for the movie to rewind are over, as we can control exactly what scene to watch with a remote control that has so many buttons it takes weeks to learn how to use. If that isn't enough, we have High Definition capability now, because we all need to watch the news in high definition, right?
Yes, the world has changed and we will continue to evolve with it. What I see as a luxury today, my children will find commonplace when they are adults. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go load my children into our minivan, which has a built in DVD player, and hit the drive-thru Starbucks for a latte because I know in my heart that is what my mom would have wanted to do, a quarter of a century ago, when she was choosing the microwave over the television.
July 13 is the big day. What day you might ask?It's the day, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Runners, is released. Why am I promoting this book on my blog? Well the answer is quite simple. I'm promoting the book because I am a contributing author for it. Believe me when I write how honored I am to have my story, Running Home, chosen for the book.
