The day started out a bit more chilly than expected, but soon warmed up to be very pleasant. I’m glad for it since it’s Mother’s Day. My hat goes off to every mother who’s braved the stress and adversity in rearing children during these times of family units being under siege by all the undermining externals around them. My biggest concern about what’s happening within our nuclear families is the availability of too much information for the curious and not fully developed minds of our young. Too many expect children to act and react as normal adults, but that really isn’t possible due to their brains having not yet fully developed. Every time I see or hear of children being exposed to words and visuals normally reserved for adults, I shake my head and think, “Why are you allowing your children’s minds to become burdened as well as polluted with information that’s causing them to fast-forward out of those few and precious years of innocence?” I’ve seen it happen too many times where children were pulled into adulthood too quickly and lack nearly no pleasant memories of youth or innocence.
I commend any parent who manages to protect their child’s innocence far longer than the average of our times. Those I personally know who were more protected against the evils of adulthood longer than normal seem to have a more gentile and compassionate side to them. They also tend to be more in touch with nature to where they really care about making our planet a better place to live. I consider myself fortunate to have become acquainted with a number of them and as far as I’m concerned, their more cloistered upbringings caused them to enter adulthood with more of an understanding of how to live their lives as adults. They also seem to keep everything in a balanced perspective. As an example of the opposite, I was walking out of a gas mart several days ago and just as I opened the door to walk out, an SUV pulled up with its windows down and vibrating that disgusting rap music at a volume totally unacceptable as well as disrespectful towards everyone within 50’ of his vehicle. The likely early thirties young man jumped out, was wearing a T-shirt exposing his tattooed arms, and of course sucking on a can of one of those caffeine overloaded energy drinks. When I got in my vehicle I looked over to his car vibrating with that primitive music and noticed a young man likely no more than seven years old giving me a look like, “Please get me out of this audio inferno.” I drove away thinking how terribly stupid his father was to subject his son to such volumes at such an early age? How can adults not realize how damaging that music will be to their children over an extended period of time? My take on seeing that was likely the father came out of a similar environment and thinks nothing of the poor examples he’s now setting for his son. Has humanity forgotten that children learn from example? It’s too sad to even consider such a possibility.
I made another trip back up to Forest City to show homes today and believe I’m really getting myself familiar with their housing environment. I stopped at a local Mexican restaurant and had an avocado salad with chips and lemon water. Going back and forth up there this past week has caused me to think I’m strapped to a bungie cord that’s bouncing me back and forth between here and there. I’m glad we’re getting closer.
