Jesse Christmas Recital
Jesse played twice at a church in Georgetown. Merry Christmas.
Ave Maria
I am very proud of my first cousin, Nancy, who has played music her adult life as the first violin at the Metropolitan Opera. She visited us and to encourage Jesse to keep playing cello, she sat down and played Ave Maria with him.
Rio de Janeiro Jardim Botânico
July is a wonderful month in Rio de Janeiro. It was great to have the whole family in Rio and we chose the wonderful and magical Jardim Botânico for a photo shoot. The weather was great. This is where I will to retire. I am just so happy.
90th and 95th Birthday Celebrations
At the end of March, my mother turned 90 and my father turned 95. We had a great family reunion. My nephew, Ryan, married a photographer and she made a video of the event. Grace is a great photographer and editor.
Technology is robbing my children of their childhood
I am a work at home dad, and I love my kids. Sometimes, like now, my heart is broken because my kids are addicted to technology and video games.
Relative to the other kids, Teddy and Jesse are great, but relative to their potential, technology is robbing them of the best times of their life. Both of them have their talents (Teddy golf and Jesse piano), but they are unable to explore these talents because rather than practicing, challenging themselves, and growing, their free time is wasted mindlessly watching videos or video games. They lose hours. Sure, as a parent, I try to be vigilant and stern, but it is exhausting and a losing battle.
My children now 15 and 13 years old lack many social skills of children of prior generations. Rather than interact with other kids, and learning to “get along”, they run home and myopically staring at a seven inch screen.
Perhaps the most worrisome is the skill of observation. They believe that the world is to be experienced through a 2 dimensional screen that tickles two senses (see and hear) and ignores the other three senses (touch, taste and smell). Real world is a beautifully complex ecosystem, and yet their experience is limited to what their devices can deliver.
At times, it is overwhelming, but then I realize it is not the children that are lost in this artficial fake technology bubble, it is the adults. God help us.