My almost 25 year old son came home last night with good news: he's landed a summer job as a barista at a popular coffee cafe in our resort mountain town. This is after months of looking somewhat fruitlessly at similar, less appealing positions. This is what many college educated kids are doing in this recession; not to mention living at home.
My son is an outdoor person. He graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies. He spent six years living in Utah, camping, hiking, river rafting/kayaking, snowboarding, skateboarding and taking on every new outdoor adventure come his way. He's trying to figure out what to do for the rest of his life.
He and his brother are planning a trip to Australia in late Fall. They're hoping to have enough money to travel, find jobs and stay a while. I hope they get there and have a huge adventure. I want them to experience the world, life, new situations, challenges. My younger son's GF is just back from 2 months in India, BY HERSELF. It has been life-changing.
While the current economic situation is not something I want to see prolonged, I'm anxious to see the way my sons react and adjust. It's their first test of really being on their own and having to struggle. Yes, they've been out of the house before and making their own way. But it's different now. They need to be on their own permanently. They know it. We know it.
This is my new mantra now that I've heard the Sarah Palin speech. Shakespeare's line, "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing" made its way through my mind as I watched her.
I do not underestimate her nor the American people. She has just the right look and delivery to gather many followers. But ask yourselves, what is she really saying? What are her policies? What are her plans for the country? How is she going to help the middle class? Just because she came from a small town and terms herself a "Washington outsider" doesn't give her credentials to accomplish anything. She has to have an agenda and lay it out. None of us should vote with our emotions. Everyone needs to take a long hard look at the issues and decide which candidate is best suited to: revitalize the economy; deliver a health care plan affordable to all Americans; bring home our soldiers; provide environmentally friendly solutions to our energy crises,;fix our educational system...it's a disgrace; stop taxing the middle class and start taxing the top 1%; stop giving tax credits to major corporations; provide tax incentives to companies that DO NOT OUTSOURCE.
Let's get real. She and John McCain represent the same old story. There is NOTHING new in anything they say. She tried to use patriotism and love of country as a weapon against the Democratic ticket. That is, if you're a war hero and you believe in the war in Iraq, you're a patriot. If you're against the war, you're not. That is utter nonsense.
Stick to the issues and lay out your plans Sarah Palin. Then maybe we'll all have something concrete to discuss.
I am reminded of "I Won't Grow Up" song from Peter Pan, the musical. I sang this song on stage at the age of four or five (not sure) during a recital. I still know the words:
I won't grow up I don't wanna go to school Just to learn to be a parrot and recite a silly rule
If growing up means it would be Beneath my dignity to climb a tree I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uuuupp! Not me. Not I. Not me.
I won't grow up I don't wanna wear a tie or a serious expression in the middle of July.
And if it means I must prepare to shoulder burdens with a worried air I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uuupp Not me. Not I. Not me. So there!
Never gonna be a man I won't. Like to see somebody try and make me Anyone who wants to try and make me turn into a man... catch me if you can!
I won't grow up Not a penny will I pinch I will never grow a mustache Or a fraction of an inch!
Cuz growing up is awfuler than all the awful things that ever were I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow uupp! No sir!
What strikes me about this video and the accompanying article which you can read if you double click my post title, is how true this study and appraisal of young men seems to be, at least to me.
Our boys are now 20 & 21. They are both in college; one after a false start last Fall. The elder should have completed his Junior year last Spring but didn't want to take a full load. He's still 10 credits short. He doesn't ask for money though. He's working to support himself waiting tables.They are both partyers and neither knows what they want to be when they graduate although the younger one is pretty sure he wants to own his own business and "be rich." I know the feeling.
Many but certainly not all of our friends have sons with varying degrees of similarities in their confusion and their belief they can just get by. None of us understands this and none of us knows how to help. Maybe that is the problem. What we are trying to do and have to learn to do is let go. We have to let go and let them find out for themselves what the world is about.
I listened with rapt attention to Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night. One of his remarks had to do with "accepting responsibility" for who we are and where we are headed. I immediately thought of my sons and wondered when this will happen.
Then I thought of the song, my recital and most of all, Mary Martin.
A recent Prairie Home Companion podcast, embedded here, is all about those nit-picking, always-correcting-your-sentence-structure and syntax finicky English Majors. I love it because...I am one of those people.
