I like early morning—especially right before dawn. Where I live, a few songbirds still herald the breaking day. I love the early morning stillness that let’s me hear them so clearly. My high speed cable modem is still off. Its loud, persistent hum is silenced. No wifi. I resist the pull to hit the email button on my phone, not because it’s on 5-bar cellular, but because soon enough I’ll stand in the shower of content.
I hear a lot about screens. A lot. I don’t hear much about how we help ourselves and our kids to not just appreciate but enjoy and even seek quiet. Quiet amongst the awesome clamor of content—both the terabytes of thoughtful, extraordinary content and the content that wears us down, amplifies our anxieties, or hardens our hearts. How do we demonstrate that we value a quiet space in time to sit and consider the content animating our own hearts and minds? What if we started to ask each other, our children, and our tweens and teens, with genuine curiosity, When and where have you noticed quiet today? What was it like?
What I am watching: Two out of three of the Peregrine Falcon eggs have hatched. By the time you watch, there will probably be three chicks. Their nest is on the Campanile tower overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. Live webcam here.
What I am reading: Is the Immediate Playback of Events Changing Children’s Memories? [spoiler: Yes] Food for thought. Read this piece by Julia Cho in the NYT to hear some of the science from folks like Dr. Dan Siegel (author of Brainstorm), and why Julia courageously asked Grandma to hold off on playing a video she’d just shot so they could savor the moment.
Coming soon: For those of you waiting with bated breath for my review of Jordan Shapiro’s The New Childhood, it is coming. I did finish the book. Whew. It takes work and dedication to finish books these days. If you can’t wait, consider reading it yourself. If you can get through the first few sections—Self and Home, the last two—School and Society are well worth your labor. I guarantee you will be provoked to think about a few things differently. And then we can talk about it together.
