empty nest?

 For the last few mornings I have written about politics. I'm not going to do that this morning. It is a conscience effort to not become fixated on that stuff. I have to admit that can easily happen. I expect that is how people wind up being radicals. I've already been to Facebook jail for expressing strong opinions on various topics, no telling where this could lead. Seriously though, I do need to just set that topic aside for a least one morning. There really is little I can do that will have immediate results so it's fine to take a break, essential even. Plus I have to say I don't believe I've offered any insight into anything, everyone knows the deal already. This whole trial is theater. Just a political stunt to gain support. But, I'm not going to talk about that. 

 This morning I am thinking about the grandkids. The last two graduate high school this year. Not kids any more. I was thinking how I didn't really feel like an empty nester when my children left and went out on their own, I never felt that way. With the grandkids though, I'm beginning to understand that emotion. I haven't seen Mark in a week now, Morgan came by yesterday for a few. Her interest was talking about going off to college in the fall. Anxious to get a life started I'd say. If you listen closely you can hear the adult in her thoughts. Yes, like all of us when we were young like that our expectations weren't always realistic, but we saw no obstacles. Life would go just as we saw it. Big plans, a big future ahead. The role of grandparents is to encourage. Encouragement balanced with experience. That is a difficult position to fill but a necessary one. I fear in todays world we are seeing too little of that. Parents today do not offer a buffer between reality and dreams. My parents always presented the realities of a situation, no matter what the situation was. Yes, I thought they were bummers most of the time but they did present the facts. My grandparents however, that was a different thing altogether. They often explained how my parents had indeed made mistakes and how they recovered from those mistakes. They showed me the balance between expectation and experience. Their goal was to teach you to work with the tools you had, and not be concerned with what others have. I was taught that counting the coins in your neighbors purse didn't put any coins in yours! 

 I have to say my grandchildren are ahead of the game. When I was their age I had little plans for a big future. I joined the Navy not as part of the big plan, but because you have to do something. That was the attitude back in my day.  As Dad was wont to say, you have to *hit or get off the pot. Sitting around home, living in the basement wasn't an option. A man went and got a job, and a woman went and got a husband. That was the normal, expected , course of events. That was the reality my parents presented, while my grandparents presented possibilities. 

 I get it though, we are living in a different world. Things aren't the same as when I was a kid. My opinion is, quite naturally, that my childhood was much better than what the kids have today. I also believe a lot of that had to do with what we didn't know. I should say what we weren't exposed too as children that we couldn't possibly understand. Those sort of things are contained in the cartoons the kids see today! Children repeating adult themes is not teaching children to be adults. It's a sort of indoctrination really. There were many topics I had to learn and discover the truth about for myself growing up. I had older siblings that would drop tid bits of information every now and again but that information required verification. You know you learn more about subjects when you are curious about those subjects. Required reading and required subjects just don't have that appeal. As a result you tend to just accept whatever information is presented. You just don't form your own opinion, rather you accept whatever the current opinion is. 

 The school system is the tool that shapes the future. In the beginning it was the teacher that held sway over the students minds. The teacher was responsible for the lessons taught and for the application of those lessons in the students everyday life. Teachers didn't just teach academic subjects, they taught morality, ethics, and the ways of the real world. The education system of a nation reflects it's future. Today our education system is preparing students for what future? A future of science without ethics, success without failure, and a future where government is the ultimate authority. We have no room for faith, for believing in any God, there is the law! 

 But I'm not talking about politics this morning. I was just thinking my grandchildren will be alright. They will shape the future for the better. It won't be in any way I envisioned but it will happen. So I can sit and write and contemplate. I offer experience more so than knowledge. Life has to be learned, it can't be taught. I can take comfort in my children and grandchildren. It'll be alright.