Look THAT up on your Internet

My mother-in-law, now deceased, had a line that used to give my wife and me an occasional chuckle.  Whenever something spiked her interest, or she was trying to remember something, she would say, “Look it up on your Internet.”

That line always brought smiles.  It seemed, for lack of a better term, “cute,” in that my mother-in-law did not really grasp what the Internet was all about, but she knew that was some benefit in using it.  We never determined if she really thought it to be “our” Internet, or if that was just a figure of speech she employed, but it tickled us nonetheless.

Remembering her words now, I think back several decades, when my father expressed puzzlement as to who a certain entertainment figure was.  I cannot recall the figure specifically, remembering only that when my father said he had never heard of them, I could not believe it.

“How could you not know who that is?” I remember saying to myself.  Yes, it was not a figure from my dad’s generation.  Yes, my dad was not really “in touch” with things anymore.  But whoever it might have been, had been in the news constantly.  He was an icon to the younger generation.

I just couldn’t understand how my dad could not know who it was.

Fast forward twenty years, to the present, and I realize I have now become my father.  I am sure it has been said thousands of times before, by thousands of people.  But, as they also likely have said, I never thought it would happen to me.

But it has.  Perhaps one of the most common lines I say to my wife is, “Who is that?” I utter it while we are watching television, especially during awards shows, when the camera focuses on a string of celebrities.  All of them, male or female but usually less than 30 years old, age are complete strangers to me.

I have now become my father.  It has happened in ways other than recognizing “celebrities.”  I also remember having puzzlement, when I was a teen, that my father showed indifference to many sporting events, especially All-Star games.

I was fanatical about them.  My dad could not care less, and showed it.  “How can he not care?” I asked myself.  “This is like a major point of the season.”

Today, an all-star game, no matter what sport, holds little interest to me.  All that I can figure is that it is a matter of perspective, and that perspective determines the relevance.  There are simply more important things about which to worry.

The economy is a constant challenge, as is trying to stay one step ahead of it.  Presently, it has become a task that many find daunting as high unemployment rates persist and major economic shifts are being experienced.  Place that against the backdrop of an all-star game and the latter does not seem to matter.

As for the entertainment side, it seems a matter of what you are used to.  And even that, in the long run, really does not seem to matter at all.