I wonder what it’ll be about me and my generation of peers that future generations are going to look back on and go, “What a bunch of maroons! Can you believe they used to do that?”
And I suspect we’re giving them lots of material.
I was having a chat with a gentleman the other day, he was in his late 60’s, and he was telling me about the time when he was in school as a boy, and how it was quite common for when any of the kids fell just a little bit out of favor, for them to get the strap. “Six lashes” is what he said was common.
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Let’s think about that for just a second. Imagine your child, or your grandchild, or if you don’t have any kids, somebody that you care about, a niece or nephew maybe, or somebody in your community, young person. We send them off to a place of learning, nurturing; a place where they’re looking for guidance and mentorship on how life is going to be and how they’re supposed to act as adults. And if they fall just the slightest bit out of line, the teacher is authorized and even encouraged to take off their belt and effectively… Well let’s call it what it is: whip the child.
Another one that was popular, according to this gentleman, was to take the student’s hand and lay it flat on the desk and then take a wooden ruler and crack it across the back of their hands.
This guy telling me these stories was only about 20 years older than me, and that’s not all that long ago that we were doing that! No wonder we’re so screwed up as a society! And we could be here all day long giving examples of that, going all the way back to the days where they would drill holes through peoples’ heads so the evil spirits could ooze out, or it was a good idea to have a smoke on an airplane, or ride around in a car at high speeds with no seatbelt on. Just … dumb!
But, it’s really not about criticism and judgment. It’s about growth. In order to have growth though, first you’ve got to have awareness.
Which brings me back to where I started. I wonder what it is about me and my group that future generations are just gonna be laughing at one day? And I’d actually suggest we don’t even need to wait for that to happen. We’ve already gotta pretty good window into it.
It’s really not about criticism and judgment. It’s about growth
I know a lot of younger, really creative, intelligent, dynamic people who look at my generation and group of peers and just shake their heads. They think we’re nuts. They think things like, “What the hell are you guys doing? You go off everyday doing something that you hate doing so that you can have the opportunity to have or buy the things that you don’t even necessarily need or, in some cases, even want to have. But you go to get those things to try to distract yourself from the fact that you’re doing so often the things that you don’t want to do. And all the way along the line you’re holding this image in your head that you’re going to get to a certain age, and then you’re gonna be able to live your life because you won’t have to do the thing that you didn’t like to do anymore. And you just hope that when you arrive at that age you’re not part of the majority that arrived there so exhausted and sick from a lifetime of doing what you don’t want to do, that you fall right into the jaws of all the products and services that are lined right up to try to fix you, and all they do is treat symptoms and do absolutely nothing about the cause.”
They watch this happening and just shake their heads and say, “Okay,” giving it all a great big “whatever.” It’s obvious to them.
What else will it be? What is the strap of my generation? And you know the interesting thing, I think is, that if I can’t come up immediately with three or four things to go on that list, I’ve pretty much already answered the question.
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Comments: What’s Our “Strap?”
What do you think it will be about us that future generations will look back and shake their heads over? Please add your thoughts to the Comments Section, below. I’d love to hear from you.
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