Sidewalks and other things we need more of

I recently blogged about hand-written letters after reading a My Turn article in Newsweek. Well, the next My Turn article made some good points about connections through communities and prompted me to think of some things I think, we, the world, could use some more of.

Sidewalks
In the My Turn article mentioned above, Carolyn V. Egan reminisces about sidewalks. When my wife and I looked for a home, sidewalks was on my wish list (along with lots of windows and radiator heat, both of which we got). My wife didn't understand why at the time, but now that we moved in and have 4 kids but no sidewalk out front, she sees my point. My neighborhood has sidewalks for about 75% of the streets. So the neighborhood itself is a decent sidewalk-type neighborhood, or at least, there are always a good amount of people and kids walking about. But I agree with Ms. Egan. We certainly could use more of them.

Unorganized Sports
I played a good deal of street hockey growing up, starting around 4th grade and ending in high school. We had two primary places to play and had to make our own rules. Sometimes if we got bored with hockey, we'd make up some game, involving the ball, the net, or maybe a nearby wall. I think kids learn a great deal from that type of experience. Now it seems like sports are over-organized. Some of this may be a result of the fear that now exists that don't allow children out of our site as much. I used to walk to school in first grade. Not sure if many first graders do now. I still see kids in my neighborhood in what appears to be "pick up" games out on the street or at the local park, but my sense is that more of the sport played nowadays is in organized leagues. I am not sure how to promote more of the unorganized sport approach for my own kids, but would like to.

Unorganized Religion
Keeping the unorganized theme, I've never been much of a fan of organized religion. I grew up Catholic and have the same issues as probably thousands of other Catholics have with the Church. But I'd like to think I am somewhat spiritual and could embrace a religion with a little less formal organization.

Ice Cream
We can always use more ice cream. My kids would agree with me on this one.

There are probably a hundred other things more important than these that we could use more off. One thing we probably don't need more of is blogs.

Kids and technology

I am on a business trip in Alexandria, VA and read some of the USA Today someone kindly left outside my hotel room door this morning. I came across an article titled Life's connections aren't all plugged in by Bruce Kluger.

He gives an account of his daughter who corresponds with a pen-pal in Australia in actual written letters, not e-mails or IM. He goes on to say:

Among the many challenges facing parents today is the way in which we can help our kids reconcile new technology and old values. This isn't exactly easy for me, as I'm not one of those dads who distrust the electronic revolution.

I had my own internal debate on when to expose my own kids to computers. I didn't want the computer to be another screen for them to look at. I read some articles on the topic and one example that hit home with me is that a child learns more about shapes by touching and feeling a ball or a cube than by looking at them on a computer. We have a PC for the kids in the house now but I never felt rushed to get it for them. And I never felt they would be behind for not having one before the oldest was 6.

Kruger believes kids can switch back and forth from the online/connected/PC world to the real human world more easily than we think

And yet what I'm beginning to recognize is that kids will unplug from the wall and plug into the real world more readily than they'd like us to believe. Like adults, they are hard-wired to make the kinds of connections that don't require a modem, but the trick is in exposing them to both the crackle of technology and the warmth of human interaction, then letting them see the difference for themselves.

I hope he is right.

Writing letters

Although I read Newsweek to help me stay on top of current events, one of my favorite sections is the My Turn column, in which average people write some short article. The topics range from serious to not so serious, but they are generally good and sometimes insightful.

In the April 17, 2006 issue, William Shaw, in his article titled We Had the Love, But I Long for the Letters, remorses that he and his wife never wrote letters to each other. She is gone now and he has photos, but

The memories that pictures and souvenirs produce are marvelous, and I wouldn't part with them, but what I don't have, in black or blue on white, are her thoughts.

He makes an interesting connection to our modern technologies.

What I'm trying to say is that our lives have changed. That special something in a personal letter has disappeared with the advent of telephones, airplanes and now e-mail—which is impersonal and limited by the lack of what I shall call "personal ambience."

Recently, my wife and I wanted to write a letter to a physician who we felt provided us a great level of care during complications my wife had in our daughter Molly's birth. Although I work in a technology related field, my wife does not. She barely uses a computer. I went to pull out the laptop to compose this letter, and my wife looked at me puzzlingly. She couldn't put her thoughts down on a computer. She needed to take a pen in her hand and write it out on paper. I am just the opposite. Between my poor handwriting and the rarity of needing to write more than a few notes, I am almost physically incapable of writing a letter with pen and paper. The last time I did must have been 10 years ago. Now, I compose everything in front of a PC.

I am thankful I don't need to write out on paper, but I do agree with William's general sentiment. Think of it this way: pulling out an old typewritten letter doesn't have the same "feel" as one in the person's handwriting.

Most of the letters that I did write were in college. I'd be curious what college kids do today. Text message and IM I guess. You can't reminisce with that.

Blogger spell check

So I just spell checked my last post. And the Blogger spell checker didn't recognize the word "blog."