Sometimes I Wonder

I find my mind wanders while I’m giving my grandson a bottle or while he’s sleeping in my arms. Number one, there’s no better feeling, but I find myself wondering about what his life will be like.

Will he spend the spring and summer on a ball field while his mom and dad pack a cooler with Gatorade and watermelon, like his Grammy and Grampy did, while his mom played tournaments?

Will he be a pitcher like his daddy was in high school and college? (Daddy says if he does, he’ll walk right out there and pull his son if the coach goes over the pitch count. No “Tommy John” surgery for Liam!)

Will he star in the Drama Club’s annual spring show?

Will he like Math like his Uncle Matt?

Sometimes I wonder.

And what will the world be like?

Grammy and Grampy grew up with the phone on the wall where you had to dial a number and we both even had “party lines.” (If you don’t know what that was, ask someone who is at least 50.)

There were three network channels that came in on the “rabbit ears” and when we wanted to watch the Bruins play hockey, my older brother had me hold the UHF antenna to get a better view. “That’s good! Now hold it there and don’t move!”

His mom and dad had “AIM” through America Online. Remember the sound of the dial-up modem? Then cellphones came on the scene first as a flip phone and then Smart phones. Will there even be Smart phones when he’s a teen?

Just think of all the technology you’ve seen in your lifetime. In the palm of my hand I have a phone, camera, video recorder, audio recorder, computer, calculator, road maps, games, police scanner, books and many other things I haven’t downloaded yet.

Will they still be playing football on Sundays? Will we run out of players because parents never start their children young because of the fear of concussions?

Will the country still be so divided? How will history look back on the Trump years? Will we find a candidate that can unify America?

Will there still be free TV or will we all buy streaming services?

Will there still be newspapers? Will there still be radio?

Will social media still be a thing?

Sometimes Liam just stares at me. I wonder what he’s thinking. My daughter, his mom, thinks Liam is just studying my face. He sees it every day but sometimes he still stares.

It’s amazing when he sees something brand new. He looks at it with such interest.

We went to Starbucks yesterday and he was so fascinated by the little sleeve they give you because the cup is hot. I watched him and thought, “How wonderful to have that curiosity.” Do we still have any of that source of discovery in our daily life or do we feel like we’ve seen it all?

It has slowly become my new hobby: to watch Liam as he learns and explores. I find myself taking out my iPhone by habit and have to remind myself that that can wait. It’s better just to watch him.

I pray that I’ll be around to see what his future world is like. For now ….. I just wonder.