Lost Youth

Driving to Max's first well-baby visit with the pediatrician, we passed a high school just letting out for the day. Groups of teens, standing around talking to each other, but all of them had iPods on and were talking on cell phones at the same time. Slackjawed, I pondered aloud: "How do they even communicate with each other when they have all their isolation technology going at one time?" We stared at them a while longer, waiting for the light to turn green, and after a moment we both burst out laughing. In that moment, we became parents. Those crazy kids - all of a sudden we are not them. We want to protect them.