A Thousand Words

I am changing the title of my blog to A Thousand Words.  As in a picture (or photograph) is worth...  

I just finished reading River Season by Jim Black.  It's a quick read, but a deep one.  Anyone who grew up in the 60's or 70's in a small town will identify with the teen narrator.  One of the feelings I came away with, was one of loss.  I don't think my daughter will have the same nostalgic sense of her childhood.   While the characters in this book went through some trauma, it was all tempered by an innocence that is not present today.  Even in a town as small as the one we currently live in, my wife and I would never allow our daughter to wander and explore the way we did as children.  And that is a great loss.  I think the world is a much more dangerous place than it was 30 years ago, even in small western towns.  On the more optimistic side, my parents probably felt the same way about the world I grew up in.  And my daughter will probably feel the same for loss for my grandchildren's childhood world!  I think this caution has cost my daughter some of the sense of adventure my generation enjoyed.  That is a very big loss.