This spring, several of my grandchildren took off to exotic
places for spring break. Some of you
may be thinking that they come from wealthy families that are pampering their
kids, but nothing could be farther from the truth. They went because, for them,
it is a rite to passage that has been pushed on them by their peers. Most of
them have little money, and in fact, owe other people money. Or maybe they
don’t owe anybody any money because, in their minds in today’s way of thinking,
mom and dad owe it to them to give them money, not loan it to them. To those
kids that have earned their own way, my apologies; however, you are the
minority. Now that being said, most young people—and it was this way when I was
young, too—can’t hang onto money. The old clique, “It’s burning a hole in their
pockets’” was as true then as it is now. When I graduated from high school, I
had no money. But, because of the expense of raising a large family on one blue
collar salary, my father didn’t have any, either. I’m not sure that, if he did
have some, he would have shared it with me, anyway. But that is neither here nor
there because, as young people then, we didn’t expect our parents to finance
us, and therein lies the difference. The plus to this was, I grew up in a hurry.
When a young wolf pup is banished from the den, he learns to
hunt or starve. He has been given his education, and has the tools, now the
rest is up to him. The wolf parents know that’s the only way he will learn to
survive on his own and this “tough love approach,” has always worked for them—it
is essential to the survival of the species. As humans, we
would think that we have evolved beyond the mentality of wolves, but as I look
around me at the number of children, in their twenties and thirties, still
living with their parents, it gives me concern about where we as a society are
going.
Now, if you are a young person reading this, you are probably
getting mad at me; so let’s take your side of the story for a while and ask,
“Who made us this way?” You’re right to think that. One of my pet peeves is old
people, complaining about young people, as if they had nothing to do with it.
They complain about the lack of morality in your generation, and your
entitlement attitude with homes and cars, and your bad spending habits, but
when it comes right down to it, we old people pretty much fostered the whole
thing. You know what my hope is? That you will want better for your kids, and
take better care of our country and its ideals before we let it all slip away.
That you will show us how it should have been done. You know, we are a strange
people in some ways, preferring to learn by our own mistakes instead of
learning from others’ mistakes, and you now have the opportunity to change
that.
Despite spring break, I still believe in you guys, and maybe
I’m just jealous I never went. But here are a couple of things you can hang
your hat on, and believe me, I speak from experience, Say “no” to tobacco,
excessive drinking and drugs. The happiness it might briefly bring will lead to
nothing but heartache. When you find that special person, just remember one
word—commitment. For out of that will come great things. I want to tell you to
“be all you can be, but don’t get talked into being someone you are not.”
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