rich's word for the day: Luddite
I'm an uncle to a prolific set of sister and in law sisters' nieces and nephews. When Christmas rolls around I ponder the quandary of children's toys in the technocrisy[sic] that is our modern existence.
And that's why I don't buy dolls that talk or (!) respond "Hoo-ah" to Microsoft commercials. I don't buy the blinking lights that make pre-programmed sounds. The dolls that move and make burping sounds.
Of course I'm not exclusively opposed to video games or cold hard cash for the young teen girls. After all's said and done, who among us doesn't want to the "cool" uncle on occasion?
Last Christmas for my nephew who is about ten years old, I bought a rocket set. A fully functional piece of pyrotechnics that would fly into the stratosphere - sort of. Mom and dad were horrified but they didn't admit it outright. (Only later did we learn that the rocket had a permanent station in a corner of the garage.)
That's too bad because discovery and imagination is a wonderful thing. Imagination is the precursor to enlightenment in a child. The active child's mind is the natural antithesis of the banal and the mundane. That mind needs to be nurtured. Enlightenment turns to wonder. Speculation turns to the "what is possible?" or even more imaginative the "what might be?".
7:43:21 AM 
|
Welcome To The Club
