Change from the Inside Out

ONE

How Change Has Changed

We got our first TV when my little brother was a baby. I don’t remember how it got into our sunroom—whether my parents picked it up at the store or someone delivered it. But one day it was just there, this beautiful shiny wooden console with the little rectangular glass screen. My mom turned the knob to “on,” adjusted the volume, and sat down with the baby. We three older kids sat on the floor, clustered around her feet. And suddenly there was sound and movement: a cartoon. My mother settled back with a sigh, Kurt asleep on her lap, and Kristi and David and I stared, mesmerized.

I don’t remember being particularly astonished—I was only three, so everything in my life was new and interesting. I had no reference point ...