change

I see the world changing before my very eyes. I am sure in the past 100 years other dramatic changes were more obvious, like moving from a local agrarian society to the country wide industrial age or from traveling by horse to bouncing along in a car. My wife's parents tell stories of going to South Korea by boat, which normally took a month and then flying for the first time by plane. In order to cover the cost, they chauffeured Korean orphans to the USA for an agency that matched them to their adopting parents. That is a pretty dramatic change, going from a month long voyage to 24 hour. Maybe it is the communication age we have entered in my lifetime. This week the whole world knew about the flooding in Myanmar and the earthquake in China within hours. When a new Indian movie comes out half way around the world, I don't have to wait three months for the release date, I just drive to the local Indian shop and rent it for $2. When I want to listen to just released music, I just go to iTunes and I can listen or buy it today. It seems like the whole world has gone from patiently waiting to expecting immediate results within my lifetime. I did not even mention computers either. Another example from my wife's parents illustrates this perfectly. When my wife and I first got married, I saw her write a hand written postal gram letter every week to her parents. We would receive the same from them. It took two weeks to receive the latest news each way. On a really fast arrival we would get it in ten days. Then came email in the past twenty years only. Now that takes too long so we have instant messaging. Last but not least we have games. I remember when my best friend's father worked on computers when I was a kid. We were all amazed at his secret lifestyle. I also recall living in Saudi Arabia and hearing of the wives of the employees playing computer games to pass the time - which always amazed me still to this day. I remember our kids going from Super-Nintendo, to Playstation, to N64, to XBox, to XBox 360. We first started out huddling around a desk playing Mortal Kombat. Now my youngest son plays with people all over the world from his room on his XBox 360. Some of them are his friends, but most of them he has never met nor can they even speak English. Simply amazing.

The most dramatic change I am thinking about today is in attitudes of young people. My oldest son was given an option in court yesterday. Pay $200 and do 24 hours of community service OR spend 24 hours in jail. He did not even think twice. He wanted to spend time in jail. One of his friends, who he has known since elementary, is in jail for 60 days for possession of drugs. I guess he will join him.