Earth Walker
September 1st, 2001, 10:32 PM
I urge all young people to put their childhood behind them as
soon as possible -- and just get on with being older, more serious and wiser("older," we'll agree, doesn't automatically
mean "wiser").
I'm sorry, but you are the generation that cannot afford to be
young and carefree and irresponsible. Your own parents have
sacrificed that traditional luxury for you. The apathy of their generation toward environmental madness makes it too late in
this dark day of humankind's ruinous behavior toward this planet
for you to bask in any extended childhood.
After, say, 14 or 15 (16 at most), it seems a waste of precious
time to linger in the shallows of childhood, it being time to move
out into deeper water. The shoals of life can only sustain ideas
that are minnows. It is in the oceans of life where ideas that are
whales are found. And the planet cries out for thinking of this
size -- thinking that requires at least a modicum of maturity.
A great part of the problem is that so many males, especially,
never get past 17. The juvenile kick some still find in terrorizing
rodeo animals, the adolescent popularity of thunder toys for
big boys and the astonishing inability to recognize the grotesque
childishness of hunting grizzlies are examples that need
outgrowing.
Likewise, I would implore all teenagers to get past the current fad of foul language as fast as they can and get on with acquiring
a true vocabulary. In the subtleties of syntax are encoded secrets to the human race just waiting to be realized, to be
expressed.
Ignore your acne, ignore your lack of popularity, ignore your
stutter(if you're like me).
If you make a private commitment to lean forever toward
"awareness," I promise the "galaxies of inner light" in your life
will always dwarf these disappointments.
But this requires teaching a condition of enchantment with the
natural world, which is the highest order of human business.
From this state-of-grace, man descends quickly into imitation,
appalling insensitivity and sheer purposeless greed -- general
mindsets of the existing adult world.
If that is the world you are determined to join, then the planet
has simply lost another hero and gained another lowbrow.
It's an old story.
But if, instead, like me most times, you feel you were plunked down on the wrong planet and are here only by some incredible
cosmic mistake, maybe you are one of those young people
destined to be a different sort of grown-up, a new kind of adult.
And you need to start thinking about what you want your life to
eventually mean.
This is because what is desparately needed is for Wise Ones to arise out of our midst, no-nonsense Shamans; for Philosopher-
Queens/Kings to walk among us and share their insights; for
Real Poets to humble us, remind us how magical this place is and
how lucky we are to have it. Maybe you are meant to be one of
these.
In this age of mind-blowing knowledge, it is hard to believe you
would want instead to grow up into the kind of adult you now
see running the world: shallow, rapacious, indifferent except to
money -- grown-ups who have never read a serious book, never
contemplated a piece of poetry and never wondered about the
world waltzing through the cosmos.
In fact, they have never entertained a big thought in their lives.
And we wonder why the world withers away!
Your planet is being murdered and all the animals with it.
The adults who profess to lead us either do not care, are stupid,
are cowards or simply have no vision.
You are about to be left a nightmarish legacy that will break your
heart when you finally realize the extent of its darkness.
Someday you will probably have children of your own. If you are
not now willing to give up your own childhood and immediately
grow up and quickly become wise and demand that, from here on,
the planet be regarded as sacred, I guarantee those children
will eventually spit on their memory of you for bequeathing them
a ruined world.
So as you head back to school this fall, give thought to leaving
your childhood behind, to taking seriously what your instructors
will be trying to tell you, to quickly growing up and becoming truly
wise.
Give thought to turning yourself into that different sort of grown-up, a new kind of adult -- that very special person who just might save the world. :sunny::sunny::sunny:
soon as possible -- and just get on with being older, more serious and wiser("older," we'll agree, doesn't automatically
mean "wiser").
I'm sorry, but you are the generation that cannot afford to be
young and carefree and irresponsible. Your own parents have
sacrificed that traditional luxury for you. The apathy of their generation toward environmental madness makes it too late in
this dark day of humankind's ruinous behavior toward this planet
for you to bask in any extended childhood.
After, say, 14 or 15 (16 at most), it seems a waste of precious
time to linger in the shallows of childhood, it being time to move
out into deeper water. The shoals of life can only sustain ideas
that are minnows. It is in the oceans of life where ideas that are
whales are found. And the planet cries out for thinking of this
size -- thinking that requires at least a modicum of maturity.
A great part of the problem is that so many males, especially,
never get past 17. The juvenile kick some still find in terrorizing
rodeo animals, the adolescent popularity of thunder toys for
big boys and the astonishing inability to recognize the grotesque
childishness of hunting grizzlies are examples that need
outgrowing.
Likewise, I would implore all teenagers to get past the current fad of foul language as fast as they can and get on with acquiring
a true vocabulary. In the subtleties of syntax are encoded secrets to the human race just waiting to be realized, to be
expressed.
Ignore your acne, ignore your lack of popularity, ignore your
stutter(if you're like me).
If you make a private commitment to lean forever toward
"awareness," I promise the "galaxies of inner light" in your life
will always dwarf these disappointments.
But this requires teaching a condition of enchantment with the
natural world, which is the highest order of human business.
From this state-of-grace, man descends quickly into imitation,
appalling insensitivity and sheer purposeless greed -- general
mindsets of the existing adult world.
If that is the world you are determined to join, then the planet
has simply lost another hero and gained another lowbrow.
It's an old story.
But if, instead, like me most times, you feel you were plunked down on the wrong planet and are here only by some incredible
cosmic mistake, maybe you are one of those young people
destined to be a different sort of grown-up, a new kind of adult.
And you need to start thinking about what you want your life to
eventually mean.
This is because what is desparately needed is for Wise Ones to arise out of our midst, no-nonsense Shamans; for Philosopher-
Queens/Kings to walk among us and share their insights; for
Real Poets to humble us, remind us how magical this place is and
how lucky we are to have it. Maybe you are meant to be one of
these.
In this age of mind-blowing knowledge, it is hard to believe you
would want instead to grow up into the kind of adult you now
see running the world: shallow, rapacious, indifferent except to
money -- grown-ups who have never read a serious book, never
contemplated a piece of poetry and never wondered about the
world waltzing through the cosmos.
In fact, they have never entertained a big thought in their lives.
And we wonder why the world withers away!
Your planet is being murdered and all the animals with it.
The adults who profess to lead us either do not care, are stupid,
are cowards or simply have no vision.
You are about to be left a nightmarish legacy that will break your
heart when you finally realize the extent of its darkness.
Someday you will probably have children of your own. If you are
not now willing to give up your own childhood and immediately
grow up and quickly become wise and demand that, from here on,
the planet be regarded as sacred, I guarantee those children
will eventually spit on their memory of you for bequeathing them
a ruined world.
So as you head back to school this fall, give thought to leaving
your childhood behind, to taking seriously what your instructors
will be trying to tell you, to quickly growing up and becoming truly
wise.
Give thought to turning yourself into that different sort of grown-up, a new kind of adult -- that very special person who just might save the world. :sunny::sunny::sunny: