I don't despair about kids today
Sometimes when I'm flying from one speaking engagement to
another, I find myself lucky when sitting next to someone who's
quite talkative. This is often a pleasant experience for me because
I'm an inveterate people-watcher. I've heard stories of sadness,
delight, fear, rivals and many other interesting stories.
Sad to say, there are times when I'm sitting next to someone who just wants
to vent his spleen on a captive audience for 600 miles. It was one of those
days. I settled in, resignedly, as my seatmate began his disquisition on the
terrrible state of the world with, "You know, kids today are..." He went on
and on, sharing vague notions of the terrible state of teens and young adults,
based on watching the six o'clock news rather selectively.
I gratefully disembarked the plane and bought a local paper on the way to the
hotel. There, on an inside page, was an article that I believe ought to have
been the front-page headline news.
The article wrote about a 15-year-old boy with a brain tumor. He was
undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. As a result of those
treatments, he had lost all of his hair. I remember how I would have felt
about that at his age - I would have been mortified!
This young man's classmates spontaneously came to the rescue: all the boys
in his grade asked their family if they could shave their heads so that Brian
wouldn't be the only bald boy in the high school. There, on that page, was a
photograph of a mother shaving off all of her son's hair, with the family
looking on approvingly.
No, I don't despair about kids today.
- Hanoch McCarty
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