Sometimes I sit on my front porch and read. Lately, when I do this, it's usually in the afternoon when the kids are coming home from school. It's interesting, and sometimes sad, to watch the older ones as they make their way home. There's a young man I have seen who has a head of fuzzy black hair, and is overweight. I have yet to see his face. When he walks, his shoulders sag, and he more or less drags the bags he's carrying, even though they do not touch the ground. He doesn't walk as much as shuffles.
I feel sad watching him. He comes across as being very down, perhaps on himself, or the world, or life in general.
For the older children, pre-teens, young teens, what must their lives be like? Many come from broken homes, and when they return from school, there is no one there to greet them. I remember when my wife had to go to work, not because she felt the need to "find herself", or excel in any type of career other than being mother and wife, but because we flat out needed the money in order to pay the bills and eat. Unfortunately, that is the way it is today for most people.
We had three sons in school at the time. The oldest came home first, and had his mother's attention for a full hour before the others came home. When they did, they received their share of attention as the oldest was off doing other things. When my wife started to work, every one of the boys resented it. They lost their time with her, and they did not appreciate it.
I think of that when I see this young man, and I wonder if there is anyone to greet him when he opens the door, or is the house empty? Are there two parents there instead of one, or none, during the evening? Do his parents even care what he thinks or feels, or is he just a mouth to feed and someone to keep them from doing what they want to do?
Our next door neighbor used to teach driving in a local high school. The young adults taking his class were usually from well to do homes. He was shocked at the way they talked about their homes and parents. He said they talked like he was not there. One young lady told the others in the car that when her parents wanted to have a party they would give her $400 and tell her to go stay in a motel someplace...
Teachers, the government, media people, all talk about the drug problems in this country, and scratch their heads. All they need do is look around. Day after day after day our children and grandchildren are blasted on TV, in the movies, in the newspapers, on their cell phones or iPads or whatever, with nothing but what a horrible future lies waiting from them: no jobs, no money for college, imminent terrorist attacks killing hundreds of thousands, global warming killing all unless, reality shows hyping a stupid way of life as if it were normal... With all this coming at them, why wouldn't they want to forget? Get high? Opt out of life?
When I grew up, we had no TV. We had the bomb, and we knew it was there, but, we did not hear about it 24/7 the way youngsters now do. What happened to kids being kids? iPhones, iPads, Facebook, My space, video games, no parental controls... I see young girls, 11, 12, 13, in malls dressed like hookers... Why? There's no mysteries left for young people to discover as they grown up. It's all out there, thrown in their faces from the day they are first able to see. We, the supposedly responsible adults, have robbed our children of their ability to be children.
And the young man who walks by my door every school day? Who knows what will become of him... It's too bad we have "advanced" to the point of making life, and the future, not worth the effort for so many.
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