By Alan M. Eddington

Living in a “senior apartment complex” as I do, I hear all sorts of comments from my “pensioner” neighbors. A few days ago, a comment sparked a reply from me, which my neighbor found surprising.

The comment was: “Oh, I wish I were young again.”

I replied:  “I don’t!”

Without human interaction, society unravels and disintegrates.

When asked why I felt that way, I said that when I was young, people regularly were in touch with one another and interacted with each other on a person-to-person basis. As kids, we walked to school together. Summertime was spent outside, pretty much from morning to dusk, until the neighborhood moms started yelling out their backdoors, “Time to come home, kids!” As young adults, most everything happened and was taken care of because you “knew someone who could do that,” whether it was changing the oil in your car, or asking around for job opportunities, or where the best place to go fishing was.

This was the human environment, and it resulted in lifelong relationships, and cherished friendships. Friendships now are created with a click of a button on a cell phone or computer.  And these same friendships can be ended just as easily with a simple click on “Unfriend.”  I’m thrilled that I have a lifetime of precious memories of experiences with human beings!

Without this human interaction, society unravels and disintegrates. So no, I don’t want to be young again, being subjected to this sort of “artificial” human environment. I am extremely happy that I have real human friendships!

© Alan M. Eddington, 2023. Eddington is a retired minister with a Master’s of Divinity from St. Louis University. He serves as the News & Features editor for the Appalachian Chronicle. In the home page feature photo, he contemplates as he looks southwest from Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia. All photos © Michael M. Barrick, 2023.