Put the screen-thing down.

On Facebook, this video was shared with the caption: "Why kids should put down X-box..."

Hey! I've got an idea! Since they're not the ones buying the X-box, how about: "Why parents should take some damn responsibility and not give the X-box to the kids in the first place."

When I lived in Halifax Nova Scotia, I saw people playing instruments like this all the time. They'd be in the pubs and on the streets. One day I went to the Sunday morning public market and saw a kid playing the fiddle (as well as the boy in the video above).

When he'd finished, I dropped a loonie in his case, and asked him where he was from. "Cape Breton".

No surprise there; the island is still a natural wellspring of traditional celtic musicians.

"How old are you?"

"Eight."

"And do you come down every weekend?"

"Only when I don't have too much homework."

"How much money do you usually make?"

"Oh, about three or four hundred dollars a day."

Yeah. Take all the electronic gizmos in your house, drive the lawnmower over them a few times, and put the remains in a bonfire. Everyone will go through withdrawal for a week or so, then you can teach them to live in the Real.



~