Maybe I’m just getting old, but it seems to me that life is getting way too complicated these days.  I can remember an earlier time when people got along in life just fine without electronics, instant information and constant contact.  Back in those times, you opened the garage door yourself, set things out to thaw and ate food that was actually what it appeared to be.  Back then, if you wanted to cool your house, you closed the blinds, and to cool your car, you rolled down the windows… with a crank. What was really strange back then was that most households survived with only one income, but then those people didn’t have bills for multiple phones, internet, cable or satellite; well you can see where we’re headed.

Yes, this must be the musings of someone who is ancient.

The funny thing is that back in those days, people spoke of “what is really important” and it was about the same list that we have today.  I interpret that as showing that all of the modern things that we think of as essential, haven’t really made much of anything “important” any better.  I might even go so far as to say that they may have even made some worse.  Here’s an example:  Today we have so many time-saving devices that we have no time to simply talk.  You would think that with mobile phones in everyone’s pocket, we would talk to other people more than ever, but then we started texting. You would think that in a social media world, we would really stay in contact with one another, but instead we are slaves to the very media that are supposed to bring us together.  Last Valentine’s Day, I sat in a restaurant across from a nice young couple who were sitting at their table, each of them texting other people; they hardly had time for their “Valentine” across the table!

So what is really important?  Our faith, our family, close friends… our relationships!

Maybe we need to make time for our relationship with Jesus Christ, our relationship with our spouses, or families and close friends.  Maybe this needs to be a time free from media, electronics, games, TV, and movies. Maybe we as a people need to re-discover a lost skill: Conversation!

I don’t want to go crazy here, but I wonder if so many couples would need to work so hard to make ends meet if we were willing to live a more simple lifestyle…

OK, that is crazy!