These Are Adults?

 

 

         I am editing my article about the wooden troll experience people ruined  with trash, large crowds, parking on private property and literally shitting everywhere.

         "These are adults?" Ben asks.

           "Well they are over 18 when they are magically supposed to know how behave like one," I say sardonically.

         "You're kidding right?" Ben chuckles but my expression says otherwise.

         "Most people aren't taught how to be responsible grown ups," I inform him.

        "Parents love their kids and want to protect them from the hardships of life. Unfortunately, some life skills are neglected along the way, including the basic stuff like handling money, household duties, sex. Good manners too."

          I recalled an incident years ago of a party at Shasta Lake where college students left camping gear, half full coolers of food and trash everywhere. Parents were shocked their spoiled brats would be so immature.

         "Your parents did a pretty good job with you," he opines. How sweet, I smile at the naive compliment.

         "Not really," I reply dryly.

         Some people become parents before gaining their own adulting skills and so their kids never really learn them either. Back when families were multi-generational, the elders could help fill in the gap but too often we have to figure it out on our own.

         My mom taught us to be self reliant while raising five kids. Dad was old school "that's the wife's job" and was not into being a parent. My maturity took longer because of my disability.

         "What we need is a rite of passage from childhood to adult to signal a transition and learning to go with it, like the Jewish bar Mitzvah and or the Eagle Scout ceremony in the Boy Scouts," I muse absently.

         "What would that look like?" Ben asks.

        "That's  agood question,"  I'm oddly at a loss for a suggestion. 

        What do you think gentle reader?

 

        

Out of Touch

 

                               Jacob Keinicke/Thomas Dambo

 

   

     I've mentioned it before but we have lost touch with nature. The sad demise of Isak Heartstone  is similar to the National Park Service grappling with nature being "loved to death." 

    "Many public land managers are grappling with the question of how to enable those places to be accessible to people, to be enjoyed and appreciated, while also balancing that with the need to protect the other living beings there, the animals, plants and ecosystems," says Marion Hourdequin, professor of philosophy and environmental science at Colorado College.

    The problem is after hundreds of years living in an urban environment, we forgot how to respect parks, trails and public land. People leave trash everywhere, make lots of noise, get drunk, have huge RVs in places designated for tents, threaten park rangers, cut down trees for firewood. These are actual examples of human behavior at camp grounds.

    Years ago, there was a clever PSA where the three bears trash a human lawn, rip out some fence for fire wood and behave-well, like humans. And there is the classic 1971 "Crying Indian" PSA about polluting that needs to be brought back.

     Beyond the man made city is the real wild world. It's not a product, or plaything to be used and tossed aside like a paper cup. We must remember that we belong to the Earth not the other way around.