“New, easier to open!” the package fairly screamed at me, daring me to not be able to open it. Lies!! Lies I tell you! It could have been the breakfast sausage but for that it took me until lunch time to open the ridiculously hermetically sealed “for your safety and for the sake of your waist” packaging. Okay, so that might have been a bit hyperbolic, but it certainly put me off my feed. What was wrong with the old packaging that a slice of the knife turned the innards into outards and breakfast was but a brown and serve away?

Why even the United States Department of Agriculture has gotten into newing and improving. They’ve improved the classic food pyramid right into non-existence. Remember the old “4 basic food groups” (burger, fries, shake, hot apple pie)? Nope, now there are 5 of them. Where did they find a new food group? (Beer?) And now that I’m thinking about it, whatever happened to those luscious, hot as lava apple pies that made the trip to McDonald’s different than to any other fast-food emporium? It’s been over 30 years since they switched from frying to baking, but try to find even a baked version. They are as rare as McRib sandwiches.

To be honest, I’m not sure there is much that was newly introduced in the last 30 years that actually made much improvement. Minicomputers we all walk around with, mistakingly calling them phones? Maybe more convenient than the corded phone hanging off the kitchen wall but we we’re doing fine keeping in touch with each other even in the dark ages of the 1990s.

There are some truly remarkable and truly new things that have come along in my lifetime. Real computers that made intricate calculations and deep data dives things of everyday life. Vaccines that prevented some of the most deadly and debilitating diseases (anyone know anybody who has polio?), medicines that cured or managed the ones we couldn’t prevent (hypertension and diabetes to name a couple), and surgical procedures for the most difficult conditions (who doesn’t know someone who is still living because of a coronary bypass or an organ transplant?). The microwave oven that almost no kitchen of the 21^st century is without. Hybrid cars that make the most of the resources we currently have available, and for that matter, automatic transmissions so more people can drive them. Battery powered smoke detectors have saved countless lives and might have saved more if everybody remembered to replace those pesky old and unimproved batteries once a year.

I am sure you can think of more than a handful of things you did not have when you were a kid that is now making your kids’ lives easier. But how many are making them better? Yes, some, but no, not all. Too many “new” aren’t and “improved” don’t. Maybe it’s time we spent some time making the most and the best of what we already have, appreciate the truly new when it comes around, and work on improving our connections with those around us.

And if any of you are in the business that’s responsible for food packaging, stop trying to improve it. You’re messing with my breakfast!

January was a cold one, colder than many and in places where it usually isn’t. The cold took a friend and taught us the value of loyalty and closeness where you’d least expected it. Read how nature taught us about life in the midst of loss in the latest Uplift!