Peter J. Gloviczki is a junior at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He majors in Political Science and also has an individualized major in Ethics in Journalism. His first book, Twenty First Summer: Original Poetry and Humorous Short Fiction, will be published in late 2004. It reminds me of the many games-of-catch that I played with my father. Almost a decade ago, I became a dire-hard Minnesota Twins fan. After watching my heroes on television, I would often persuade my father to play catch with me in our backyard.
He threw the old, muddied, softball, and I threw it back. Although I didn?t always catch the ball, I relished the opportunity to enjoy a brief pitch-and-catch with my father. At the time, I loved the opportunity to emulate my baseball idols. Today, I value these experiences for another reason.
In an era when information travels at blazing speeds, and each of us, myself included, seem to be on a never ending quest to reach our various destinations as fast as possible, I take comfort in memories of simple, relaxed, games of catch. During the 2000s, a time that I have termed "The Starbucks Generation" because we've become seemingly obsessed with instant service and instant results, I often fear that the simple pleasures in life are quickly disappearing.
The pleasure of a face-to-face conversation is one noteworthy example. Online instant messaging services have replaced the sound of laughter with the phrase "LOL," which is short for "laugh out loud." This seems significant to me because not only have many replaced face-to-face communication with online communication, but we've even shortened online communication from "laugh out loud" to "LOL." In doing so, we?ve arguably created one of the most succinct forms of communication in our new century. For the Starbucks Generation, which is running from meeting-to-meeting and firing off three emails in one minute on their hand-held devices, such instant messaging services appear to be the perfect solution to their communication needs.
I, too, am a proud member of this group.
I enjoy the opportunity to trade instant messages on my cell phone and I know that every building on campus is wired to the Internet, which ensures that I can stay in constant communication with the rest of the Starbucks Generation.
However, when I saw those two men playing catch today, I remembered just how important it is to occasionally step away from our cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). In our generation, the values of relaxation and simplicity are often superseded by ultra-productivity and technological advancement. In some sense, this is a welcome sign about the progressive, forward-thinking nature of our time. After all, it is difficult to fault a generation interested in progress and working towards fundamental questions like: what can we do to better our lives, and how can we make our businesses more efficient?
I would ask that the Starbucks Generation take a moment to remember, and experience, the simple pleasure of putting on a baseball glove and playing a game of catch. If baseball can teach us anything about life, I think it provides us this lesson -- it is worthwhile to temper our productivity and hard work with some relaxation and leisure.