We Should Never Have Survived!
Dear friends,
The below refreshing piece pokes fun at how, in many ways, fear has come to rule the day. It comes from an old article on BBC. This inspiring messages reminds us of the famous quote attributed to Franklin Roosevelt, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Let's lighten up a bit and do our best to transform fear into courage and love. Have a great day!
With heartfelt love and best wishes,
Fred Burks for the inspiring and educational PEERS websites
We Should Never Have Survived!
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, and 70's probably shouldn't have survived...
Our
baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was
promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or
cabinets, and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore
no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in
the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with
sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside
playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one
actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed
down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the
problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.
No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile
phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends, we
went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no
lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to
get over it.
We walked to friend's homes.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and
although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out,
nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. Our actions
were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out
if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine
that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers
and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation
and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we
learned how to deal with it all.
If you are one of these, congratulations! We survived!!!
Note: The above is a copy of a BBC article originally posted at this link.
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