December 17, 2015 (Thursday)
Sports is big business these days. I recently saw a TV show that interviewed some baseball players from earlier days of popular teams. This particular show focused on the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I learned that the players in the early 20th Century had to have second jobs to make ends meet in their family budgets. As players, they were paid little. Quite the contrast today when many players are paid millions.
One thing a player mentioned was the mode of travel to distant cities for games. Today entire teams board one big plane and fly to another city in a short time. Back in the days we’re talking about now, the teams took trains when the cities were too far for buses. The player I heard on the show said he really liked the trains better than the planes, because the players could get up, walk around, visit the other passenger cars and get to know the fellow players much better. On a trip that took more than a day, one had the opportunity to talk with many team members. On a plane, they talk to those by their side, and don’t get to know each other as well.
Technology has removed much face-to-face interaction. There was a time when many families had front porches. Without air conditioning, families visited with each other on those porches. Without cell phones, they knocked neighbors’ doors and shook hands with each other. They helped each other with chores and auto repairs. They got to know one another. Today, with central cooling and heating, windows and doors are closed and we virtually dwell in modern caves. Cave dwellers in the 21st Century? Yep.
Many families have more than one car, and kids and parents alike go off in different directions. Being on separate schedules, they hardly ever sit down at a table to have a meal together. When not on the phone or computer, they may be watching television, and there’s some such device in almost every room of the house. Not only do we not visit with many people as we travel, we don’t visit much within our own families. Consequently, we grow apart and develop our own interests, little by little knowing less and less about each other.
“Brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:10).