for our times, they are a-changin'
Mar. 17th, 2009 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zephyrofgod"Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'."
Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan (Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music)
As I write this, I realise that the world is in a state of change. Without change, the world dies. Yet, at the same point, too much change too quickly means the world dies as well.
Striking the balance between not enough change and too much change has almost always been a difficult things for us as humans. Too radical in one direction and we get anarchistic leanings. Too reactionary, we get Nazi-state. Of course, this doesn't help in the political system the States currently has, either, where everyone seems to want something different from their government.
But this isn't about the government.
It's about how we're losing touch with our kids. Or more importantly, other people. Perhaps I have no room to talk. What does a single white woman, no kids, have to say about children, right?
After giving it some thought, I realised that how we raise our kids, at least, by those parents that want to give their kids the right learning opportunities, the right chances to grow and to thrive, to become a part of their society. Maybe even grow up to serve not only their countries, but to serve their fellow human being.
I fear that most of this world has somewhat forgotten what it's like to grow up. Or, maybe, we coddle them, tell them that the Real World is scary, but they don't have to deal with it yet, tell them that they can stay little forever. After all, who else by Gen Xers would carry a metal superhero lunchbox to work with their kids doing the same as they head to school, but yet, absorbing hours in front of the television after coming home. Or Millennials and their gadgets, talking all the time to the words on the screens of their phones, but never to the person they go to dinner with.
We fishbowl celebrities. We turn others into a new kind of freaks sideshow, like Octomom and the Tree Man. You can't turn on a television or computer without being bombarded continuously with all of this crap. I'll even confess that I read the celebrity "news" on MSN myself.
Have we conditioned ourselves to do this? Why? Most of us want to live private, uneventful lives. We want to get married, have kids, maybe win the lottery so we don't have to worry about bills. Maybe for some of us, buying a house.
Whatever happened to caring? Simple pleasures, like reading a book or walking barefoot on the beach? What is happening to humanity?
All I know is that I'm pretty good at observing behaviour, but terrible at shaping it. Maybe, some of us need not to be parents...but we still need to raise our neighbours' children.
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'."
Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan (Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music)
As I write this, I realise that the world is in a state of change. Without change, the world dies. Yet, at the same point, too much change too quickly means the world dies as well.
Striking the balance between not enough change and too much change has almost always been a difficult things for us as humans. Too radical in one direction and we get anarchistic leanings. Too reactionary, we get Nazi-state. Of course, this doesn't help in the political system the States currently has, either, where everyone seems to want something different from their government.
But this isn't about the government.
It's about how we're losing touch with our kids. Or more importantly, other people. Perhaps I have no room to talk. What does a single white woman, no kids, have to say about children, right?
After giving it some thought, I realised that how we raise our kids, at least, by those parents that want to give their kids the right learning opportunities, the right chances to grow and to thrive, to become a part of their society. Maybe even grow up to serve not only their countries, but to serve their fellow human being.
I fear that most of this world has somewhat forgotten what it's like to grow up. Or, maybe, we coddle them, tell them that the Real World is scary, but they don't have to deal with it yet, tell them that they can stay little forever. After all, who else by Gen Xers would carry a metal superhero lunchbox to work with their kids doing the same as they head to school, but yet, absorbing hours in front of the television after coming home. Or Millennials and their gadgets, talking all the time to the words on the screens of their phones, but never to the person they go to dinner with.
We fishbowl celebrities. We turn others into a new kind of freaks sideshow, like Octomom and the Tree Man. You can't turn on a television or computer without being bombarded continuously with all of this crap. I'll even confess that I read the celebrity "news" on MSN myself.
Have we conditioned ourselves to do this? Why? Most of us want to live private, uneventful lives. We want to get married, have kids, maybe win the lottery so we don't have to worry about bills. Maybe for some of us, buying a house.
Whatever happened to caring? Simple pleasures, like reading a book or walking barefoot on the beach? What is happening to humanity?
All I know is that I'm pretty good at observing behaviour, but terrible at shaping it. Maybe, some of us need not to be parents...but we still need to raise our neighbours' children.
