I’m going to let you in on something I really hate; it
really bothers me when people speed in parking lots. Seriously, you’re going 40
to get to a stop sign, a speed bump, people with shopping
carts, and an elderly person walking down the aisle, where are you going?
Nowhere fast! It’s sort of like the way many young people are living today,
speeding in a labyrinth of hurdles, twists, turns, stops and starts, without
the patience and sense God gave them to navigate it safely.
On a daily basis I’m surrounded by dozens, at times,
hundreds of teenagers and most of them wear the same wearied look I see on
people twice their age, because they have taking on the responsibilities (at
least the actions) of an adult. They drink, they smoke, they work two jobs,
some care for babies, some for their parents, many for themselves and nearly
all of them lack a concept of the world around them. It’s pretty depressing
because in them you see the future, or lack thereof.
For the most part, you can’t tell them any different, show
them any better, even though they’re searching for a context clue to assist in
figuring life out. They’ve been disappointed by nearly everyone that was supposed to love, nurture, guide,
protect and teach them, that another adult is just another lie or another hurt
waiting to happen. The attitude on their faces tells you the story:
My father is not around and my mom doesn’t want to be. My
grandmother’s doing the best she can, but she doesn’t understand the world we
live in; these teachers don’t think I can learn, so they don’t teach to me, so
I’m out here trying to get by the best I can until these streets kill me.
It’s a sad story replayed on every Martin Luther and in
those chocolate suburbs you’ve fled to in hopes of giving your children a
better life, but not arming them with the tools to carve one out. The village
has disbanded and those children are raising themselves in a world so obsessed
with beauty and ugliness that they seek beauty in eyesores because it brings smiles
to faces hardened by years of resentment and abandonment. They can’t tell you
what the gross national product is, but they know where to get for the low or
what the newest Ciroc flavor tastes like.
They’re highly sexually active, but read below grade level
and even the scholars of the lot are merely nice cars in the junk yard, they
stand out amongst the discarded but don’t compare to those shiny models in
showrooms where tax dollars actually affect change. So, we criticize from our
perches, demonize the child we left behind and live with the fear of the future
to come. I’m not sure if you’re watching, but our future is here and they’re
drunk, high, ignorant and angry. Angry at you, angry at me and angry at
everyone who left tacks and splinters on their crystal stair.
Back to that parking lot we’re all in, they’re texting and
posting pictures garnished with weed and small bottles of liquor as they speed
through; there’s a collision waiting to happen and it won’t be at an
intersection with four-way stop signs, it’s going to be in a crosswalk, because
they don’t recognize the signs of slowing down…
Leave a respond
Post a Comment