11
Sep
2011
Growing with the Changing Times
Walking down the street in Noe Valley (San Francisco) today, we came across a familiar item on the sidewalk. Intrigued, my son stopped, pointed, and asked: “What’s that?!?!”
He was referring to a payphone. No joke, a payphone.
It was a simple payphone. I can’t even remember the last time I used a payphone. I never thought one could be so exciting. In fact, I’m still amazed Colin Farrell managed to make an entire movie with a pay phone as a prop (2002). But cool or not to us, it was cool to my two year old.
While he examined the payphone, I whipped out my own phone to start taking pictures. I never thought I’d be taking a picture of a phone with a phone, but I wanted to capture the innocence of youth. We lose it too quickly, especially this day and age.
After snapping a few pictures, a dad walked by and either he was also amused by the payphone or he was amused that we were taking pictures of a payphone because he smiled and made a comment about wondrous object of our interest.
It was amusing regardless and the experience helped me stay calm (and fairly happy) throughout the 90 minutes in the car it took us to get from Noe Valley to the Bay Bridge. There were white knuckles everywhere. It was a stressful 90 minutes.
But as stressed as my DH was stuck in traffic, it doesn’t amount to the stress felt on 9/11/01. It’s been ten years and a lot has changed in our world, but families are still missing those lost in 9/11, like the little girl in this tear-jerking Tribute Video.
Just like the disappearing payphones, 9/11 has become a memory that sneaks up on me every year but it’s not in my conscious mind. I’ll recognize it and remember the day when it’s triggered, but I admit I don’t take time to think about it very often. It’s been ten years and and I don’t think I ever thought about it as much as I did today watching my son admire a payphone.
H’s admiration in the payphone reminded me how important it is to take the time to show children things that are out of the ordinary, because those things are easily be forgotten and things can change in the blink of an eye.
So be thankful for our loved ones and cherish the memories of those who we are missing from our lives today, regardless of when or how they were taken. Live the moments and teach the ones we have here today about our world and let them experience life. Because it really is a blessing to be here and watch our children grow with the changing times.
