July 18: A moment of reflection

Oh, do I yearn for the good ole’ days. And oh, do I love being reminded of them. Like right now.

At this very moment, I am sitting in a tranquil park, watching an adolescent boy hit ground balls to his younger brother, providing positive encouragement the whole time. How often do we see something like this anymore?

Kids these days would rather sit in their basement playing video games or glued to their computer, browsing facebook profiles (believe me, I know from having a sister). The days of kids spending endless summer afternoons under the burning sun, playing pickup baseball games are in the past. Very rarely do I ever see kids with baseball mitts anymore.

But as I watch this pair of youngsters — even though the younger one hasn’t caught a single fly ball yet — I think there may be hope for today’s youth, if just an ounce or two.

I think one of the main reasons why I can’t get along with my sister is our disconnect when it comes to afternoon activities. Even though the Internet’s been around since I was a kid, I didn’t really start using it until later in high school. I didn’t have an AIM screename until my junior year.

Instead, I spent endless afternoons outside, playing baseball, football, basketball, soccer — you name it. That’s just what us kids did. The outdoors was our playground. Today’s adolescents, however, if not involved in after-school activities, rely on the Internet to entertain them.

Hence, the ridiculous number of overweight children in our society.

I wish I saw more kids like the two brothers in front of me this morning outside, playing catch, shooting some hoops, tossing a football.

But I know that in today’s high-technology world, that’s about as likely as cows learning to fly.