Are there too many rules these days for what seems to be anything and everything? I recently received an email from my mother that actually made a lot of sense, but it had one drawback, which I will share at the end of this post.
The email presented an idea of real freedom that people born between 1925 and 1975 got to experience, and that people of the present day, mostly kids, have never known. There were things such as: not coming home until the street lights went on (we didn't worry about being nabbed), we could ride our bikes and sometimes fall off (maybe we got hurt maybe we didn't) we experienced a life of play while using our imagination (do kids even know what hide & seek is?) In sports, you either made the starting line-up, or you sat on the bench during the whole game (we couldn't cry to our parents because their anti-dote was to say, "step up your game," they didn't complain to the coach for us and make excuses).
A friend of mine, Vince Mancino, who I assisted in writing his book, Down the Drain, has basically said it best, merely by the title, Down the Drain. America has gotten so caught up with "protection" and "prevention" that they have lost sight of the fact that loss or lack, teaches us extremely valuable lessons; how to step up our game. There are a lot of ideas in Vince's book that we need desperately to revert to; we need to not be helicopter parents, stay-at-home moms need to not bitch about how hard their day was when the kids have been in class for most of it, and the husband is sweatin' his brow just so she can have bon-bons. Politicians need to get a clue that wealthy pay more than their fair share of the taxes, willingly make large charitable contributions, and that eventually the well will run dry, or at the least, the donation for a political run will be limited, if presented at all.
The world really is a much different place than when I was growing up. I truly wish every kid of the day could experience it in the same way as my generation. I didn't stay home to play video games during a great summer day. I was either playing a great game of Over the Line baseball, or jumping off the local pier at the beach. Were there risks being taken? Would our parents have objected? I'm sure they would have, but at least we got the experiences before we got the beating. That's another thing; we didn't have a government agency called Child Protective Services to dictate what our parents knew was right or wrong, we learned by a swat, or sometimes a bar of soap. Our parents were the law and we knew it.
As Vince puts it in his book, it seems that the kids of the day, whether in the working field or in school, just don't have the gumption or the spirit of play; as the way of our generation. Maybe that's okay, but maybe it's not. Because they have had so many rules and regulations put on their proverbial plate, they aren't allowed to make mistakes which really, in turn, enable them to learn. It's a proven fact that the more regulations society has pressed upon them, the more dangerous it becomes.
I'm hitting my 50th this year and I've done so many things in my past, some to be proud of and some not, but all in all, I'm so glad I grew up in the era that I have. I was allowed to speak my voice (without a permit), whether anyone wanted to hear it or not. I was allowed to live, experience and many times get things wrong, which as it turns out, has always been at my expense.
The kids of today will never know the freedoms of my generation, and so be it. Though I find the things in their generation, such as technology and quantum theory exciting, I wouldn't trade my era for all the tea in China. If the kids of today took the time and could understand my generation, and then add to it, their information; they'd be unstoppable.
Though each generation has something to offer, I believe it will be interesting to see what the youth of today will show the world...besides a back-flip off of the latest skateboard ramp...which my gen invented.
It's a different world than the one I grew up in and there will always be, no generations excluded from a SituationsX.
No comments:
Post a Comment