When my godson was three years old, he and his mother went shopping at the local mall, where she bought him a copy of the timeless classic, The Wizard of Oz.
My dear friend presented it to her son as she drove along the hectic business highway leading away from the mall, reaching it to him as he sat behind her in his car seat. He was very excited at first, mainly because she was so thrilled to give it to him. So excited was he that he did what any three-old might have done when overjoyed. He threw it out the window.
My friend did not realize right away that her boy had sent Dorothy, Toto, and all their friends launching into a fatal ending that consisted of a steady roll of tires driven by hundreds of people eager to get home after a long day’s work. When she noticed the video missing, she asked her son what had become of it. He immediately cried.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “You didn’t know that would happen. We’ll just get you another one.”
Now it’s very nice that nowadays we can just run and grab a movie off the shelves of many a store, and it forever becomes part of our video library. Better yet, we need not go anywhere anymore for many movies. They can be sent to our homes via Netflix or downloaded onto our laptops or TV screens.
But what forty or fifty-something year-old does not remember the days of the annual television showing of The Wizard of Oz? If you didn’t catch the only presentation of the film that year…well, you had a whole other 365 days or more before you would ever have the chance to see if Dorothy kills the wicked witch and gets back to Kansas with Toto.
Those in-house movie nights sure were the best, as you waited all week from the day you received the TV Guide showing a black and white picture of Dorothy and her friends on its pages. Anticipation mounted that week until, finally, on the night the movie finally aired, your house would become a movie theater, with you and your brothers and sisters filling the living room seats well before show time. Your mother would serve the refreshments, always making something special to serve with the usual pretzels and potato chips…something like brownies or cupcakes or sundaes or pudding.
Yes, back then, you knew that single showing of The Wizard of Oz on a thirteen-inch TV screen you hoped was in color was a special event ~ and so did the household of every kid around you.
And even though every kid in your class had seen it before, when you convened at recess, you all talked about it every year as if it was the first time anyone of you had ever seen it.
Well, those days are gone, and I am not saying I want them back. I love most of technology’s advancements, and I am personally thrilled to own DVDs of my favorite movies instead of only being able to see it at the whim of a major TV network. Better yet, I love that I can pull up almost any movie I want on my laptop at anytime.
Some things change and some things stay the same, but sometimes good things change and they are never coming back again.
As I have said many times, I love technology. I love that it brings my movies and workouts and memories and information and the whereabouts of my son to me in a way that is convenient to my lifestyle. Some wiz has made this all possible, and I appreciate that.
And, yes, it has completely replaced the annual small screen experience of The Wizard of Oz for children across the nation, but it will never replace certain things in this life. In fact, only time will ~ and we would do better to be wiser about it.
A listening ear.
A warm hug.
A first kiss.
A final kiss.
Laughing with a friend.
Crying with a friend.
A knowing glance.
A great meal.
A good run.
A day on the beach.
A hike through nature.
Gazing at the stars on a clear night.
Gathering around a campfire.
A catch with your child.
Celebrating your team’s win.
Celebrating a child’s birth.
Mourning a loved one’s passing.
Falling in love.
Being in love.
Love.
A parent.
A friend.
A spouse.
A child.
No doubt any reader could add hundreds more to the list.
So often, you hear the jargon of the day... "The future is now." And, in a sense, that is true.
But I also say this: “The past is now.”
The future is the future. Like it or not, it is coming. Whatever happens this minute, this day, this next week or month or year…we are not getting it back. No matter what the future holds for any of us, we can make a choice and effort to enjoy the people, the things, the experiences we have right in front of us, right now. This day, this moment.
You will never know any of them in this way again.
So, in the wise words of another film classic, Wayne's World, "Live in the now.
Because it won't always be there.
Have a wonderful Friday… and a wonderful weekend with family and friends.
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