THEN NOW
How do you answer when small children ask you how things were in the “olden days”?
Do you lay the un-laminated truth on them without delay, or do you feel it is necessary to edit things a bit; to patch up the fading fabric of memories before passing it along?
I'm making use of an editorial ”you” as I ask. Of course, you aren’t old enough for any kids to ask such a personal question of you. Or, are you?
Yes, you are?
Developing youngsters seek models and teen agers look to those who have made into the twenties as veterans in solving so many of the very problems which face them at their age level. The very young would often be more attracted to the manner in which a teen-ager handles a social problem, of instance, than they would seek advice from older persons who seem to be out of touch with life. They have to become grown-up themselves before they realize how much of living remains,essentially, the same over they the years.
Many children need “sounding boards” against which they can bounce ideas and concepts as they think of them - and they can do so with confidence that convinces them they are the very first to have conceived such an idea It was not the grown up man Christopher Columbus who discovered the New World. It was was in the mind of the small b[y talking with or listening to, sailors returning to harbor from afar. It was then the boy sensed a New World being somewhere. He was aware of such a place. As a teen ager that same boy came to know that such a place had to exist. The grown-up Christopher Columbus merely went out found what his young self had so confidently decided existed.
We, the “sailors” who frequent the ”harbors”of today where children gather to listen and emulate us, are currently presenting a rather severe and somewhat warped “real world”. We are in a glitzy entertainment phase right now presenting “reality” shows. The ultimate act seems to be young boys and girls eating plates of live worms. Deceit, trickery, camera legerdemain and mockery of our ethics are misused and the mess force fed to young people by peer pressure tactics defying standard norms of decency and decorum.
Far better fare is available,but it not being presented favorably. Young people will seek in you and use it to advantage,but we can't say we have made it easier for them to do so. There is even some merit in the haphazard manner in which we offer opportunity to our young. It is an uphill quest. We make it had to get,too and that builds stamina, strength and dedication.
Once again, I feel, we will be blessed with young people of ability to carry our nation forward. It seems to work out that way in spite of all we do to prevent it from doing so.
A.L.M. October 3, 2004 [c496wds]
