Meaningful Investments

 What are you investing in?
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Recently, I have been very frustrated by the slowness of my computer.  Then, I realized that my hard drive had years and years worth of files that I no longer need and forgot to delete, and my inbox had emails going back to 2009! So, I’ve been deleting a lot of files and emails, and my computer is working more effectively now. 

            Interestingly, I have a hard time deleting emails from family members. Before we all had smart phones and a group text thread, we would email each other to discuss mundane, everyday things like July 4th celebrations, grocery store lists, planning baseball game attendance, etc.  And I don’t want to delete the record of those conversations.

            Why do I feel compelled to save the emails of those ordinary conversations?  We live in a digital age, where photos, tweets, and status updates can disappear with the touch of a finger.  One bad tweet can create a national controversy or ruin a reputation.  One Youtube video can turn an unknown person into a sensation overnight.  In contrast, the emails that discuss ordinary activities are records of something precious and long lasting: my relationship with my family members. We have a lot of history together, and we’ve shared life together.  We have invested time, tears, sweat, laughter and hard work into big events like weddings and births and mundane events like checking the air pressure in the tires before a road trip.  These relationships cannot be deleted by the swipe of a finger.

            My question to you is, what are you investing in?  Are you investing time and effort into learning an instrument? Are you investing in your relationship with your child by listening to them practice, and helping them practice?  Are you investing in the musical community by going to local music events? In this digital age, where so much of work and “life” occurs between the lines of code, will you make an effort to put down your phone or tablet, walk away from your computer, turn off the TV, and make an investment? Invest your time and energy into something or someone that cannot be erased.