Ever notice how busy the world is? Ever notice how busy we try to keep it? If we aren't working, we're doing anything in our power to keep our minds entertained (often at the expense of keeping our bodies healthy). We occupy our spare hours watching TV, reading newspapers or books, surfing the internet (you're here reading this, aren't you), basically doing anything we can to keep the mass of grey matter between our ears from getting bored. I miss the simpler days when a book or the company of my friends filled those hours between things to do.

Thanks largely to tough economic times, I find myself thinking about a simplified life and how things might have been better for our parents and for their parents before them. I have no illusions that they lived worry-free lives, but absent a constant stream of information injected into their brains as we now "enjoy," did they worry as much? Or, more specifically, did they worry needlessly as much?

In today's world, statistically unrealistic worry seems common. We worry about our children's safety so we put pads and helmets on every part of their bodies and send them out into the world with cell phones so that we can reach them whenever we need to. Some of us even download tracking software to follow their every move. But is the (admittedly horrific) possibility of their abduction or disappearance really that high?

Some of you are gritting your teeth right now. Even one lost child is one too many. And I agree. But that's not my point. The irony of our nurturing caution with our children is that we'll gleefully strap them into a multi-thousand pound vehicle and charge down the street from incidental destination to incidental destination without a thought beyond their safety belt or child seat.

42,000 people died in the US in 2006 in their cars. Though I don't have the figures, I'm sure a painful percentage of those were children. Meanwhile, less than 200 children per year are the victims of stranger abductions. That's out of a population of about 304 million people, fully 60,000 of which are children between the ages of 0-14. Again, even one abducted child is too many, but do you see what I'm getting at here? We'll risk our children's lives by driving them around with hardly a care in the world, but we panic over the far lower statistical likelihood of their being abducted.

We worry about terrorist attacks even though we're astronomically more likely to be killed driving to work or walking across the street. We go to the beach and worry that a shark might eat us even though we're more likely to be killed by bees. We worry about losing our jobs even though the vast majority of us will find new jobs and many of us will be happier for the change. We worry early, worry often and worry unrealistically. Why?

Information. Actually, let me restate that because information is actually valuable. Raw data, absent the filtering process of turning it into good information, is not. Biased data, falsely fed to us as information is the worst. But that's what we get and we get it in spades. We get it from news outlets (televised, printed and online) pushing sensationalized stories because sensationalism is what gets the viewers to tune in and stay tuned in through the commercials promising us better lives, better stuff and more of it.

So I look back and wonder, when my parents only had 4 channels to watch and one opportunity to catch the news, did they worry about the same things we worry about? Were their economic cycles driven by unreasonable panic like ours often are or were their financial woes more grounded in reality? Did they invest their time pondering real concerns like their children's futures or waste valuable brain power concerning themselves with improbable possibilities?

Had you asked me, when I was a child, to put on kneepads, elbow pads and a helmet before riding my bike and worried that I might be abducted, I would have assumed you'd already suffered a blow to the head yourself. My friends and I ran around, unfettered, unsupervised and un"tracked" until the Sun slipped below the horizon and never was there a worry expressed. Ours was a simpler time. Ours was an easier time.

And, I'd argue, ours was a better time.

Perhaps it's only sane that we worry a bit too much about our kids. Perhaps it's tolerable that we think to excess about the unlikely possibilities because they are just so horrific. But perhaps, just maybe, we could all benefit from a little less time in front of the TV or computer monitor and a little more time face-to-face with our children ensuring they are prepared for the world out there and smart enough to handle the threats. Maybe less worrying and more action might leave us a little more confident in their ability to face what the world can throw at them. And perhaps that approach would leave us a little less worried and our lives a little more simplified. Simple is good.