Changes

Changes

Over the years, one finally realizes change is inevitable.
Nothing can stop it, no matter how we stomp our feet.
Screaming it "shouldn't be that way" gets one nowhere.
To watch it happen is amazing though.

To see your city/town transform from when you were small to what it is now.
You sit and ponder, "when did this go in?", or the proverbial "I remember when..."
My almost daily bicycling rides take me over area that a short time ago grew trees.
Now I see houses, stores, and people I don't recognize.

To hear music that feels like you can no longer sing the words to.
Remembering those songs that drew imagination with each line, thought and nuance.
Even old Rock and Roll was understandable.
There was a message, a rhythm that was usually easy to follow.
You felt good afterwards.

We had the likes of Walter Cronkite saying at the end of his news broadcast
"And that's the way it is", and, you knew you heard the truth in news that night.
Talking heads and provocative discussions, and immediacy of false information are the new trend.
Pretty faces, vacuous brains, and a following of "true believers" make up the new Audience.

Social groups, no matter the name, drew us out of our homes.
We met with others that we would not normally meet outside our work or church.
It allowed a night away from kids, responsibilities.
An opportunity to mingle is a safe setting.
To help the community if that was part of its heritage.
We bettered ouselves by volunteering.

We used to meet with friends, family and spend time "catching up".
Now we find excuses to meeting up.
The time to develop outside ourselves is eroding.
Who do we know outside our protective little core?

The kids aren't kids any longer.
They go from school to dance, sports, scouts, and church.
We have to get them there on time.
We are keeping them active for safety's sake.
Can't have them grow up as a kid, scrapping knees, climbing trees, or just breathing air.

We have progressed.
Phones are for texting not talking on.
We socialize on social applications with people we have never met.
We spend time with others with our heads wrapped around gaming controllers.
But do we talk at all?

Where are the intimate dinners with a close friend?
The chance to "Eat, Drink, and be Merry" seems to be lost.
It is about the schedule, "how do I fit it in?"
It is about the food of the day I put up "on the wall".
Not how my friends and I enjoyed the food, the friendship and,
The chat of good times and common interests.

This is a lament of what is lost.
It can be changed if we put down the cell phone during dinnertime, and while behind the wheel.
Courtesy to others is now becoming a rarity.
Irate drivers are becoming a daily visual.

The more life changes the more we whisper the silent request of "can we have our old days back?"
Do we miss those times more then embracing the new?
It is time to look up, around and beyond the current fads.
To seek that which we have not seen, experienced and most of all
Enjoyed.

With Wishes for a Peace Most Profound