There is a heatwave moving across the country and it has us in its sights. We have watched as first the people of Perth wilted then shortly after the Adelaideans melted under its impact. Now it has reached the east coast we are stoic in its onslaught. Do you know, I feel as though we have only ourselves to blame for our discomfort. As a child I recall long periods of hot weather and we dealt with it. We had no air conditioning then. As children we played outside and only occasionally came in from the heat. As teenagers we would spend the whole day at the beach. Sunbaking. We ventured in to the water from time to time to cool off but our mission was to become the colour of chocolate and as quickly as possible. When we ventured out as a family we travelled in cars with windows wound down as our skin adhered to hot vinyl seats.
In all honesty, I don't think it is that hot. I just think we have become soft. We have reduced our tolerances by turning on the air conditioner at every opportunity. But worse, we have raised our children to be soft as well. We have taught them to seek refuge from extremes at the first signs that they are out of their comfort zone. With the intention of being hands-on parents we have taken things to extremes. We have also taught our children to become too easily bored. Through constant stimulation we have removed their capacity for patience and to entertain themselves unaided. I remember a time when we as children would spend the entire day outside and only return when we were hungry or when it got dark. I have to force my children to leave the house and then they are back within the hour looking for something to do.
Tomorrow we are going away for the weekend to attend a wedding. We will travel in our air conditioned car and the kids will amuse themselves playing games, watching movies or listening to music on their iPods. I will watch the trees go by out my window.
Tonight we are having an old stand-by Spaghetti Bolognaise. The recipe for it as on a previous post.
