I’ve become quite fascinated (probably a little too fascinated) with Facebook.  Yet another technological trend that I’ve wholeheartedly embraced!  Is this good for my soul?  As advanced as things have become in the last 10 years, I can’t even begin to imagine how my children will be communicating with their friends in 2018.

    I do hope, though, that no matter what devices they’ll be using, they’ll have a place in their hearts for cassette tapes.  Specifically, cassette tapes that I’ve used over the last five years to record conversations, sounds, and silliness that I’ve had with them.

    I’ve been recording their lives using a simple tape recorder, as in a recorder that uses tape.  Tape tape.  Cassette tape.  The brown, thin fragile stuff that magically captures sound.  And they love it.  They love videotaping, too, but they get a kick out of only hearing audio, and, I hope, using their imagination to try to picture what they were doing in those moments when they recorded themselves talking about their days, singing various songs, and laughing at the sounds of their voices.  Listening to these conversations reminds me of why I really enjoy radio because it forces the listener to not just use their imagination, but to also try to ascertain nuance, inflection, and tone.  In other words, it’s exercise for the ears and it’s listening rehearsal.  God knows the world needs to practice how to listen.