Answer me this

I've got a kid in the eleventh grade who doesn't know what the fuck she wants to do with her life beyond, you know, the whole eyeliner and boys thing.

I've got another who is a freshman at a very good state university, studying environmental sciences, thinking perhaps the world can still be saved; but, she's had a bad week, overslept the alarm a couple of times, got rear-ended to the tune of $6300 (no injuries, and thanks baby jesus for insurance & affordable deductibles) on her way to buy Pop-Tarts.

I've got a kid who at the ripe old age of twenty-four has decided that the end is near. The end of the world as we know it is just around the corner. He's coming off of a six-months job working outdoors, grunt labor for peanuts, in 100 degrees with humidity so high his cell phone has bit the dust twice. He now wants to "work out, play video games, and eat well." Part of me wishes he would renew his interest in marksmanship; I can see how marksmanship might be handy.

I've got a kid who has three kids of her own plus a husband in dental school. I tell her younger brother, the kid who wants to work out and eat well and play video games, "Your sister is a rebel and she goes her own way. Why do you think she delivers her babies at home and refuses to vaccinate them according to the prescribed schedule or put them into public schools?" and he says, "That's sweet." He means it. He respects her. She meets convention with ... the bird.

Bravo.


So, I just had this thought: if the kingdom is smoke and mirrors (which it clearly is), isn't its downfall smoke and mirrors, too?


What are we supposed to tell young people these days? How are we supposed to guide them?

Or are they supposed to guide us?