O
ur family visited Living History Farms in Urbandale, IA this fall. It’s a neat little town that has been created to resemble a town from 1875. There is a church, a drug store, a dentist, a print shop, hat shop, blacksmith and the list goes on. People in costume are working at each of these shops as well as the farms outside the community.
It struck me as I toured through the homes, almost each room had game set out on a table. Even in the living room, there was a checker board on a table. The thought occurred to me that all the entertainment involved people, interaction and relationships. Chairs faced each other. The focus was on connecting.
In many homes today the furniture all faces the tv and games are no where to be found. Entertainment no longer requires relationship, human interaction or thought.
I’m glad I live in the here and now, but I can’t help but think that the simpler way of life may have been a little better for the mind, the body and the soul. I’m grateful we don’t have a tv in our living room. The furniture all faces each other. And we do, in fact, have a bucket of legos which are typically spread out on the floor more often than they are placed neatly in the bucket. Under the love seat, we have Candyland and Sorry. Under the other other table is a new game called Close the Box. And on the shelf in the kitchen, we have Tenzies.
This morning I took a picture of what we built last night. We invested the time between dinner and bedtime talking, building and playing.
And just so you don’t think we’re crazy, we do have a monitor in the corner of the basement hooked to a dvd player. So, we can watch movies when we want. But, we’re not bound by the TV. It’s not the center of our lives.
The homes in the small town in Walnut Hill inspired me to keep this tradition going.
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