SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

       The VCR stops working. What do you do? Throw it out. Gone are the days of disconnecting it, hauling it into the shop and getting it fixed. (Well, I guess the days of VCRs are gone, too.)

       Remember back in the day when you needed to rent a phone from the phone company? You’d never have thought to chuck it out and get a new one. You took it in and got it fixed. What’s the mentality now? “Ah, it’s 10 bucks. I’ll buy a new phone.”

       We’ve become a very disposable society but it’s not all with things that clutter up landfills.

       Materialistic things used to mean something to us and we’d hold them close to us. These days, however, it’s the blasé attitude of tossing things out that has carried over into personal relationships with people.

       Have you had a good friend move away? You were great pals when you lived close by but as the distance grew, so did the absence of that person in your life? Most people realize it’s something that happens and treat it as such. But, how many friendships or relationships have you had that you didn’t value until it was done?

       What do people hold close to their hearts? Some say emotional connections often remain near and dear. Have your relationships with people changed over the past couple years? Have they changed in good ways or bad ways? And, were you hurt by that change?

       The Internet helps people stay connected, but does a relationship suffer when you lose that personal interaction of talking on the phone or spending time face to face? Do we change the view of our relationships because the other person is now solely words on a screen instead of in-person interaction?

       Maybe it is time to reassess how quickly we’re willing to throw things aside and look at how it impacts others around us.