Please forgive the extended absence...we've had a lot happening lately.
Have you ever noticed how, as you've progressed through life, words and titles change, yet still have basically the same meaning?
For instance, a doctor's office or medical complex is now a 'wellness center'. Same place but different title. 'Wellness' implies 'good', kind of gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling. Instead of asking 'how's your health?' maybe we should ask, 'how's your wellness?'
Personnel managers are now 'human resources officers'....as opposed to 'inhuman resources'?
Maintenance departments are now 'operations centers'. People who work in operations still wax the company floors and mow the company grass.
The examples are endless.
During the War on Terror, there are no 'combat reporters'; they are 'embedded journalists.' Regardless of the title, they still get shot at right along with the troops they are annoying. Side note: none of the embedded newsies today can hold a candle to the great Ernie Pyle, who was a war correspondent in the Pacific theater during WW II. Pyle was killed in combat during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Being so highly respected by the troops he covered, he was interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu...with his helmet. Pyle was also awarded a posthumous Purple Heart, a very rare occurrence for a civilian.
Which brings me to generational labels. Pyle was a part of America's 'Greatest Generation'; since then, we've had Baby Boomers, generations X and Y...and now Millennials. In my personal opinion, each generation has gotten a little weaker as far as societal standards and moral direction. Need an example? The old TV show 'Ozzie and Harriet'. When they'd shoot a scene that took place in the parental bedroom, they always depicted Mom and Dad as sleeping in separate beds. Always. Now? It's not uncommon to see partial nudity in bedroom scenes on television.
As part of the Baby Boomer generation, we grew up in a much different world. Cell phones, selfies, the internet, social media...they didn't exist. If we rode bikes we didn't do it wearing helmets; if we crashed and got scraped up, Mom would douse the wound with mercurochrome and slap a band-aid on it, good as new. We weren't rushed to the wellness center for an MRI or CT scan, where the medical staff could quite possibly report the parents to social services for child neglect because the kid wasn't wearing a bike helmet.
Don't even broach the subject of discipline. We didn't have 'time outs'; we had Dads with belts or Moms with switches.
...and the world would be a better place today if society still had them.
