My son’s e-mail arrived at about midnight. It was a message confirming that he would be picking me up to take me to his daughter’s extra-curricular activity at her High School the next day, Saturday. It was a routine message, except for the few words at the end.
He knew I would be awake late as usual, at the computer, when the e-mail would be delivered. He ended with an injunction:
“Go to sleep! :)”
How often his mother and I had said that to him, tenderly, sternly, exasperated, always affectionately! The smiley face he had added seemed to say that yes, he remembered, and was happy with the memories; he was turning the tables on me. I felt a circle had now been closed.
On Saturday morning we drove in heavy rain past playing fields where teams of little children were slogging in the water and mud playing soccer while their parents stood on the sidelines urging them on. Thirty years earlier we would have been out there in the rain and cold, me insulated in a jacket, gloves, scarf, cap, my son in his uniform getting all muddied up, so much so that sometimes I would have to hose off his legs on the patio outside the house before he could run inside for a hot shower.
Today, it became more and more evident to me how my son’s role and mine had now been reversed. He was in the driver’s seat, literally.
And times had changed too. Yes, there were still those soccer matches, and at that moment his younger daughter was playing in one, watched by her mother. But he and I were headed to the school gym to watch a contest of robots built and programmed by his daughter and her colleagues at their school, something undreamt of as a high school extra-curricular activity when my son was a student.
The robot players in action:
(Please click the arrow to start the video clip)
Meet the robots:
6 comments:
Louis, an interesting episode of life in the golden age.
Yes, the kids have taken over the leadership or as you said the driver-seat. Who can we blame for that turn around but us the parent who taught them all the norms and value to be a leader.
And now that the have learned the skill of driving, we might as well sit and enjoy the trip. After all we surely know that they are good at it now. We are their teacher remember!
Have a nice day.
Hi Idrus,
You have dealt with this theme in posts on your blog. We share the satisfaction of knowing that our kids are doing a good job as their generation takes its rightful dominant role.
We are extra fortunate to witness them in turn grooming our grandchildren, the generation waiting in the wings.
Yes, it's the time for us to enjoy the trip and leave the driving, in all its aspects, to them.
hello louis,
what a nice robot you have there. how old is the inventor , are they college students ???
Over here in Malaysia the robotic competition is held for uni students
Hi Rizal,
The "inventor" is really a group of "inventors" because one of the practices at this school is to teach the students to collaborate as members of working groups. A very important skill given that is how work is organized in most of the more progressive and effective corporations currently.
The students are at "High School" level, meaning Grades 9 through 12 so those students would typically range in age from 14 to 18. In British colonies schools at those grades used to be called "colleges'. Is that still the practice in Malaysia? Here in the US, "college" refers to tertiary education, not high school.
Hello Louis,
Thanks for the pictures and video.
In my view, the times have not changed as much as society would have us believe. The underlying nature of society and issues are essentially the same.
Tribes are still at war over limited resources – trade wars, culture wars and wars over limited resources masquerading as quests for democracy, freedom, human rights etc.
At the individual level, moms and dads still have to rise early and leave the cave to hunt or gather berries. The cave has to be swept and maintained and bankers have to be fought off.
We still prepare our children for responsible adulthood, just like primitive societies did. Instead of learning spear making, we teach them how to build robots. Society still set aside resources for this teaching activity. In the village the fellow who taught spear making couldn’t go out and hunt, so they gave him the pig’s rump after the hung. Same thing as budgeting for schools (same problem, different way of dealing with it).
I think what’s changed is the way we deal with the same issues of greed, ego, godlessness and tribalism. We’ve switched from sticks and stones to software and scud missiles to solve the same human challenges. The times have changed the methods we use. The times have not changed the fundamental problems.
Thanks for your space to articulate.
Adirya,
I appreciate your stopping by my blog. Your comments could certainly be the basis for some intense discussion over a couple of glasses of wine, a few beers and/or a very tall latte.
For the time being, it has to suffice for me to say that my post dealt with observable differences in phenomena, technologies and lifestyles over the past several years. I think "change" would be an appropriate word in that context.
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