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So, I was sitting here, flipping through my usual page of headlines over at Fark, reading this article about, well, being provacative vs. being empowered, and thinking about an e-mail a friend sent me earlier, on top of some spiritual questions that have been popping up for me recently. The e-mail was just one of those chain forwards that goes around and around and around, assuring it's own survival by demanding the reader pass it on to so-many friends, you know the sort. I read them anyway, if I have time, because every once in a while they have a decent message. This one did. It was the story, I'm sure you've heard it, about some mouthy teenager going off on an elderly gentleman about why his generation will never be able to understand the up-and-coming one. 'We've been raised with cell phones, computers, people walking on the moon, neurophysics.." Blah, blah, blah, the kid goes on about all the great things he grew up with that this old-timer wouldn't know much of. After he pipes down some, the gentleman looks up at him and says, "Son, it was MY GENERATION who invented those things so YOURS could grow up with them! Now, what is it you're doing for the generation after yours?"
Needless to say, it makes a good point. When I joined the Army, I was filled with girl-power and pride in my country and myself. Surely, I thought, I am helping to pave the way. Sitting here, at 1:30 in the morning in my ACU uniform and suede boots, behind my big Army Clinic desk, I question that. What is it, exactly, that I'm doing for those girls I see come into the clinic? The young ones, with their mothers or fathers, or the teenage girls who come in looking a little sheepish as they sneak condoms out of the bowl on the desk and scamper out, or the ones I see playing basketball in the gym? What am I doing for these girls, or their male counterparts, or anyone who is not already at the same place in their life as I am? I suppose my interest has been renewed at my finding The Baha'i Faith, which is a complex, but incredibly peaceful and accepting religion, not to mention the fastest-growing on the planet earth. A large focus for the Baha'i is doing good for others, especially those of future generations. Humanity is finally maturing, we know, so it is time to take a different approach, and to help the world bloom into what we know it can be. Each religion has been a different stage of our race's (the human race, that is) maturity, and it's time to own up for the world around us, and take care of one another. While this has never been something I didn't believe, it is a great source of strength for me to find people who feel as I do. Not to say I haven't met individuals, along the way, but never such a community as this.
I wonder, when I look around at the attitudes of women and girls younger than myself, to what degree have I effected these attitudes? I see such a huge amount of disrespect among these people- for themselves, others, their seniors, their juniors... And it seems so endless. My generation has been so notoriously selfish, and I can't help but wonder if that self-focus will ever be turned... I want so much to see that attention that is so painstakingly applied to oneself be held up against what these people see others go through... Being stationed in Korea has given me some small idea of how big- and how small- the world really is. I lived in ten states in the good ol' U.S. of A, but no matter how far into the ghetto you go, there's just some things you will never understand about the rest of the world. Not everyone sees things like we do, even the ones with comparable lifestyles. The differences go much deeper than Democrat VS Republican, or Crip VS Blood, even. There's so much in this world to learn, so much to know, so much to teach. There is so much each of us can do just to make this world even a little bit better for somebody. In an age where the basic courtesies of saying hello to someone when you begin speaking to them, or referring to your seniors as ma'am or sir are completely blown off, how can we be so astonished that there are children exploiting each other sexually, and little girls wanting to show off their quickly-maturing parts? How can the big things continue to amaze us as they occur, even as we totally dismiss the very basic parts of every day respect and courtesy? Without a foundation, everything is bound to crumble.
I'm not one who touts religion as being an absolute neccesity. I have been bound to my own faith, before I knew that what I believed had a name. I know full well morals, respect and caring are not limited to those who claim a religious strain as their own. What I don't understand is why we are letting these things slip away so quickly, and why no one seems to be doing anything about it.