I guess you could say I was a child that grew up on “screen time.” My screen was an 8″ black and white TV, upon which I spent Saturday mornings wallowing in Looney Toons cartoons. I would then spend the rest of that Saturday at the movie theatre, watching technicolor movies with fabulous choreography and music. Today screen time is more apparent as kids walk around with a screen attached to their hand. However, you might say I was breaking ground for today’s generation.

One of my favorite cartoon characters was Sylvester, the cat. That poor creature spent his entire existence trying to consume Tweety Bird, but never accomplished the deed. Either Granny would whack him on the head with her broom, or his conscience (good or bad) would lead him into temptation or drive him away from it. Maybe this is how I was introduced to my own conscience. It’s an inner voice that’s built into us at our conception. Or as Victor Hugo once said, “Conscience is God present in man.” He also said, “The sewer is the conscience of the city.” Either way our conscience can often determine what our actions will be.

If you were Sylvester, your ultimate goal would be to eat a canary. Your good conscience would fight for Tweety and fill you in on all the bad that would occur if you succeeded in your goal. Your bad conscience would tell you to hang the consequences and go for instant gratification. It used to be that Sylvester’s good conscience won out. Today – not so much.

For me, my screen time has switched to looking out our window to feast my eyes on nature and the wildlife that surrounds me. The playful squirrels that eat our bird food while dangling from the bird feeder by one foot are amazing. The feral cats abound. I’m sure someone is feeding them, because they all look extremely healthy. The birds try to make a stab at the seed but must be satisfied with the remnants scattered on the ground. Since it is spring and everything is coming alive again, the view is most enjoyable. However, there is the ugly side of life too. The apparent passing of drugs on the street or human trafficking and a visual police presence. To top it off feral cats are mating on a catarondack chair. They should get a room!

So how does conscience play into all this? I guess what I’m wondering is whether the conscience has become so numbed by public opinion, a WOKEsociety, political correctness or is the world actually devolving into something I don’t recognize anymore? Good is now evil and evil is acceptable as good. Maybe we’re all living in a world of Looney Tunes.