Open Writing

Arriving at the wide white line on the road below the latest stop light impeding my journey home from the grocery store, there came up on my left side another car. The driver, looking to be all of 10 years old, sat . . . no, slumped in his seat, was bobbing his sideways-baseball-cap-adorned head, slapping the steering wheel with his hands as if he were practicing his bongo drum routine, thrusting his shoulders about as if dodging the baseballs that went with his cap, screaming out the words of a song that was blasting so loudly from his radio my windows were rattling. He was utterly oblivious to anything breathing or moving around him within a 100 foot radius.

When the gyrations of his mouth allowed for his eyes to be open, he anxiously glared at the red light, gunning his engine as if he were the pace car at the Indy 500 auto race, letting the rest of us know that he was prepared to leave us in the dust when the light turned green. I calmly rolled up my windows and turned up the volume of my new-age-elevator music as I let out the breath I was holding just in case this child's car sucked all the oxygen out of the air while preparing to charge forward in a mad, raging dash for . . . the other side of the intersection.

Youth demands recreation, and if it is not provided in high places, they will seek it in low places. Karl G. Maeser 1828-1901

Volume. What an interesting experience, this volume business. We are designed with two ears to hear and process sound. You would think that we would have evolved into having automatic volume control to go with the ever increasing blasts of sound coming at us from every aspect of life, but especially from young people.

Go to a shopping mall and look at the average age of the people there. They are junior high and high school kids. Go to a pizza parlor, car wash, movie, or just listen to what is going on at the parties in your neighbor's house while the parents are away, or even while the parents are home. This is life at full volume.

Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has. Anita Brookner

And it is not classical music and mellow poetry that is being blasted at us. It is often screaming, angry, violent smut that would have given our parent's generation a heart attack, or had them running to the nearest chapel to dust off the devil's powder that may have gotten sprinkled on them by the offending person. And this insulting behavior has been going on for thousands of years. It is not new.

Youth is when you blame all your troubles on your parents. Maturity is when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation. Harold Coffin

Why do they choose the most offensive people to imitate? What is it that they want us to hear? That they are angry, afraid, lonely, disillusioned, offended, feel lied to, tricked, and deceived? Are they saying that they are overindulged, spoiled, indifferent and calloused? I don't know.

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. Aristotle (384-322 BC)

The problem, to me at least, seems to be the human penchant for focusing on the negative because it seems to stir up the strongest emotions, that in turn leave the most indelible imprint on us. Nice people don't make money for the MTV generation, the media moguls and the mass consumer corporations. It is that simple.

There are far more youth involved in good activities, caring about their family and friends, doing community service work, getting good grades, having jobs, creating ideas, hoping and dreaming for the future, going to college and just being good citizens. Why do we not talk about them? They are not all Generation X. I want to write a book called Generation X-ceptional whereby we document the large numbers of young people who are creating a better future for us, who are speaking out against destruction and hatred, who are crying out about peace and family and joy.

We simply are not really listening to them. Turn up your volume for these young people. You will like what you hear.

© Anna Mancini