by Georgie Bright Kunkel

If you lived in a little village in the last century you would associate with a few people living close by and news would travel by word of mouth from village to village.
The rich landowners and the peasants made up the population. There was no middle class as we know it today. Only those who were born into means lived in great houses. The lower classes lived in hovels that we would not regard as houses today. Workers had no laws to protect them from virtual slavery just to survive. It wasn’t until late in the 20th century that labor laws began to protect workers and then it was a nine hour day or even a longer work day.

Christianity brought to the western world a Sabbath which saved the workers from continually working without respite. Everyone worked, even young children. Granted, children need to learn to work as they grow up but when they slaved away alongside their parents for many, many hours each day it was not learning but drudgery.

It wasn’t until cities began to proliferate that children were provided with schooling for most of the year. Most children in early times learned to do chores that needed to be done. Often a young boy would gain the opportunity to learn a trade from his father or a friend of his father. Young girls helped their mothers in the kitchen and on the farm until they were ready for marriage.

I remember when my live-in nanny made me a hope chest which was a box with a padded cover in which I was to accumulate pillow slips, sheets and other household items that I would need when I married. I learned to embroidery designs on the pillow slips and my nanny would crochet the edges to make them even more decorative. In those days the man needed to prove he could support a wife and a young woman needed to accumulate what she needed to bring into her new home when she married. Friends rallied round newlyweds and helped them begin their married life.

What a difference today with television and the internet a great part of life.

Facebook entices young people to reach out into the greater world. We no longer have a limited number of friends throughout life. Instead, we go on Facebook to accumulate friends of friends of friends. Each new entry on Facebook brings a number of their friends until one is overwhelmed with the new people in one’s world. Rarely can there be in depth communication with a best friend. As a result, the communication has become limited to short sound bytes, as it were. I have mentioned before the new shorthand that one needs to accumulate to converse on Facebook. No longer is there deep conversation but instead little messages that have been reduced to shorthand.

Fortunately, I belong to several groups where I can interact in more depth and engage in exploring topics of choice. And what are some of the topics? Global warming, eliminating poverty, providing early childhood education, to name a few. Since men usually dominate decision making in the public realm, women need to reach out into the greater world in order to get their needs met. After all, war and football which is pseudo-war needs to give way to recognizing the needs of women as well as men in society. Where women are recognized in any society, there are usually more decisions benefitting all of society. I know, it is easy to talk about what needs to be changed but not so easy to facilitate these changes. We can begin by not only caring about our own family but finding energy and time to contribute to the greater society even in small ways.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at 206-935-8663 or
via gnkunkel@comcast.net
Note: The Cancer Thrift Shop in West Seattle is in need of volunteers. If you are interested, contact Judy Kinsman at 206-932-7069.