Green house gases, global warming, deforestation, carbon emissions, cars, oil, water, trees, end of the world, doom and gloom.
Politicians and news media are always at us about how grim things are, how everyone is trying to save the planet, but what about sustainability of the most precious resource that we have.
OUR CHILDREN.
Why is no-one monitoring that.
Without our most precious resource there will be no need to save the planet, simply put, there will be no-one left to leave it to.
Our children are the most valuable resource we have, yet no-one seems to care about sustaining their futures, only the world they are suppose to inherit.
When I was a child, I had the most amazing time. A climbed peach trees at home ,made castles on the roof of our garage, climbed walnut trees at our aunties and dug for treasure on vacant lots., drank water from the hose and dug for China in the Veggie patch.
Our aunties house by the sea, gave me an amazing childhood. I lived every child’s dream of walking the beaches and combing the shoreline for a bottle, corked and filled with a message. As children we spent hours upon hours searching for that elusive bottle from a far away land, a map of treasure or a call for help. It was never to be. But I still dream of that bottle bobbing on the oceans waves and hope that one day someone deserving will find it
“Keep true to the dreams of thy youth” stated Freidrich von Schiller (1759-1805)
But what of the children of today?
What can they dream in a generation where something as simple as a message in a bottle has been washed away among a sea of technology.
There is an innocence of youth which many years ago lived with us until we reached our early teens. These days that seems to be gone far sooner and lasts many years less.
One hopes we do not remove the dreams and wonder from childhood all together, for it gives many the sense of their desire for future greatness. Where else do children get the feeling to be astronauts, ballet dancers, firemen or writers if they have not been able to fictitiously dream a little about their heroes and their adventures.
Part of that dream of heroes, comes too from their parents. To attain respect parents must be seen by their children as the heroes of their lives, to talk to, to trust, to follow and to respect.
Sadly, too many people are shopping out their responsibilities as adults and parents by dumping their children in front of iPods, wide screen tv’s, dvd’s, computer games and other assorted technological advancements.
“Wi-fit” is not and should not be a replacement for children running outside playing games with other children in the street. Getting fit naturally. Growing up is to have fun with others, to mix and fight and decided for themselves what is right and wrong.
The best hope for our world, is not to pump billions of dollars into short sighted concepts of today, but to spend more money and more time developing the children of tomorrow who will truly have to fight the causes we have started.
A decade ago there was a push by do-gooders to have political correctness written into the books of my youth
But we must learn not to transpose adult weaknesses, guilt and mature concepts onto the minds of our young.
Not once in my childhood , nor until now, did I ever think or conceive that a “golliowg” was a symbol for the down trodden or outcast of this or any previous society. Not once did I think that three little pigs could have any other reason for living together than because they were related or shared a common domicile due to rent sharing. And I would never have ever considered there was more to Noddy and Big Ears than funny faces, colorful costumes, a funny car and great adventures.
A healthy imagination is the basis for a life of achievements.
What if Leonardo Da Vinci had not imagined and dreamt his vivid thoughts. We would certainly be a poorer society without his arts and inventions.
Had many explorers not imagined of greater more exciting worlds we would never have learnt of the new worlds.
If Gene Roddenbury had not dreamt and imagined then generations would be short of the experiences of James T Kirk and Captain Jean Luc Picard.
Now that would be a loss!
In the words of that very series, it is “about the journey not the destination”, and we should relate that to childhood development.
Lets never get in the way of our children’s dreams and imaginations. The natural ones, not the ones brought on by the technology which saturates our world.
Our true fight for sustainability should be to sustain that childhood for as long as possible, not end it sooner.
If we want children to respect adults, we must first offer them the respect of their youth. The great adventure of childhood was enjoyed by us, so it too must be enjoyed by them. To cleanse and make clinical anything that is beautiful about that time in our lives due to our own failings and misgivings is to raise children destined to lead cold forsaken lives.
To dream is to hope. To hope is to strive. To strive is to succeed.
Removing the ladders rungs in life is not to make it safer, just harder .We must add rungs in the ladder of life for our children not remove them. Give them more to try, to sample to achieve and enjoy. Children must learn to see, touch feel for themselves what is right and wrong for them.
Adventure is the name of life’s game, that is what we truly have all over other species.
You don’t after all, ever see a cow, bears or zebras, looking for a message in a bottle, washed up on a beach. Now do you?
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