Entertainment

People like to be entertained. And we are so bombarded with entertainment today that we don't know where to turn half the time. But back in the 1880s they didn't have recorded music, movies, TV, smart cell phones, telephones, facebook, youtube, netflix, hulu, or amazon prime.

I'm reading a book about Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. I learned that Taft's future wife used to hold things called salons once a week. They would announce a topic each week that would be discussed next week and everyone would go to the library and learn as much about the topic as they could to be able discuss it intelligently at the next salon. Can you imagine that as your only source of entertainment? Topics were broad, varied and interesting. So people not only entertained themselves, they got smarter.

Their alternative was card games and other games. Or picnics or nature walks. And of course this was the perfect atmosphere for PT Barnum to create his circus. The most loved pastime was reading. Can you imagine? People getting smarter for entertainment?

I guess what I'm trying to observe is that I feel like everybody staring at their phones and Facebook all day are getting dumber. God help us all.