The newest book is, Work: A Deep History, From the Stone Age to the Age of Robots by James Suzman, current page 52. This book started out differently than expected. Chapter 1 is called “In the Beginning”.
James mixes the story of the last known hunter-gatherer tribe the Ju/”hoansi with the Big Bang. The beginning of everything with the end of something. James talks about how cells and energy work to create. He lays the foundation for the next 360 pages and his concepts of work.
James questions what we refer to as “living”. The connections we weave through stoicism, thinking, rethinking, art, taking walks, more. Of course, these connections are based on current influences.
The Ju/”hoansi question why people working in buildings with air conditioning, drinking coffee, make exponentially more than people working in the hot sun digging ditches. They question why people digging ditches go back to digging ditches instead of “enjoying the fruits of their labor.”
Originally it was reported that these “bush-people” living as hunter-gathers were thought to live shorter, worse/harder lives. They their existence was a struggle from birth to death. It is the story of the white man (yes the white man) rewriting truth and history to justify greed and the unnecessary work of others.
In truth the Ju/”hoansi lived longer, healthier, happier lives. They worked an average of 15 hours a week and spent the rest in leisure. As a side note, it was not until the white man showed up and started chasing them off their land, raising cattle and destroying the environment that things started to get bad for the Ju/”hoansi.
How this relates to raising my daughter. The issue with screens and my distaste for them. Never once have a I seen a child staring at a screen, in a shopping cart, in the car, at the beach, in a bookstore, at the mall, at the pool, at home, at school, walking down the street, I can go on, and thought, “oh good.” Yet, I smile every time I see a child with a book in hand (a real book, for the record).
We work to what? Buy things? Have things? To get our children an Xbox and iPad? According to the receipts from the library my daugther and I saved nearly $5,000 checking out books for free in 2020. No videos or movies. Nothing passive. All active. All using her mind and imagination. All engaging, firing the synapsis in her brain. Connecting neurons. Building pathways from to right and left hemispheres of her brain. Something screens fail to do.
I am dragging Work through a personal filter. Creating a connection made through 52 pages of 412. The takeaway so far, is the Ju/”hoansi work for their needs, not for wants. 15 hours is all that is needed to provide and allow for leisure. Leisure is not watching TV and sitting around creating health issues, and diseases in their bodies. It is playing, talking, interacting, observing, living.
James shares a story of two Ju/”hoansi men. They both stare at a tree and make observations about the nest building habits of a bird. Each has their own theory of the bird’s habits. Both theories are based on each of the Ju/”hoansi men’s background, life, and influences. Both are equal to years of modern-day scientists using cameras, technology, and years of education and study.
It is not their work. It is their leisure. If you worked 15 hours a week, what could you provide your child? A smaller house. Simpler food. Free books from the library. Walks in nature. More of your time and attention. They will move out of the house. Eventually, you will to. The shows will be lost to time. If they look up from the screen, they might see you staring at yours, if you are there. So, they look back down.
I do not know what is right. We are all trying. Doing our best. I do not know much. What I do know is that my father is not going to leave me lots of (any) money when he dies. Every house he has ever lived in is gone one way or another. Every Christmas and birthday gift gone. Thrown out, sold, donated, disappeared.
What cannot be taken away are the times he played “dragon” with me as a child. Standing on his shoulders at Crystal Lake diving into the water. Camping at Snow’s Lake and melting gummies over a campfire. Him picking up every time I called during the divorce. Listening to me, no matter what state I was in. Letting me vent, cry, scream, break and… he didn’t pick me up, but he didn’t let me fall.
I have investigated research on screens. Both for and against. The only memory I have of TV with my dad is the one time we watched an “R” rated movie on HBO and he kept making my stepbrothers and me look away at the naked parts. It was a Charles Bronson movie.
I say all that, to say this: what memories were not made or lost to sitting in front of the TV? How many conversations went unsaid, sitting in silence at something someone else created? How many more memories could be with me today, had we only spent more time making them? Who would I be, had I not wasted hours a day hunched over, staring at a screen?
What are the chances my daughter will say as an adult, “Dad, why didn’t you let me sit in front of a screen more? Instead of reading with me, playing with me, painting, creating, making, exploring, talking, being with me?” It might make today easier, but it does not do anything for her future.
Maybe, just maybe, my view of screens is wrong. How my daugther and I spend our time together is not. I think the Ju/”hoansi would agree.
Posted. Not Perfect.
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