Parenting Advice From Joy Berry: Things Not Staying the Same

My sister is a librarian and has impeccable taste when it comes to evaluating anything with a storyline. So while I was laid up with recent foot surgery, I decided to follow through with her recommendation that I watch the TV show Mad Men. For an entire weekend, I hunkered down on my living room couch and powered through back-to-back episodes from rented DVDs.

Having been a young adult during the era that provides the backdrop for the Mad Men series, I was impressed with the show’s authenticity. The accuracy of the costumes and sets alone are enough to transport one back to the 1960s—a time of heavy smoking, hard drinking, and the endless pursuit of “the good life.”

In fact, the smoking, drinking and partying that is non-stop throughout every episode leads one to wonder how anyone survived that decade. The truth is, people not only survived, they became better because of it.

For example, when one compares the current smoking laws to the fact that people in the 1960s were allowed to smoke nonstop in all public places including airplanes, one can begin to appreciate the never-ending struggle in which humans engage for the purpose of changing and becoming a more enlightened species.

Nothing illustrated this phenomenon better than a Mad Men episode during which the principal family went on a picnic. When the outing was over, the family left its trash strewn all over the place. Thankfully, this would be completely frowned upon today, and the environment is better off because of it.

So, thanks to watching Mad Men, the next time I am tempted to lament, “Things just aren’t what they used to be,” I’m going to remember that things not remaining the same is more often than not something to celebrate rather than something to regret.