Saturday, June 02, 2007

What's the matter with kids today?

I was in the check out aisle of Target when i looked over and saw the latest PEOPLE magazine with a cute, precious, freckled red head on the cover. She had big, blue, doe eyes and a toothy grin. The picture next to that one was a picture taken 9 years later of a tanned, bleached blonde haired bimbo in the front seat of her car with her eyes closed, looking sick from obvious liquor and drug use. I was looking at Lindsay Lohan...obviously. I picked up the magazine and set it next to the bread, shoes, and shampoo I was buying (oh only at Target!)
I have a guilty secret; I am absolutly fascinated by Lindsay Lohan. Not because she's an actress or some what good looking or even that I am a gossip whore but because she is the Barbie doll representitive of the generation we are living in and surrounded by. She makes us ask the question, "what is wrong with these kids today??"
Truly, what is it about this young culture that makes them so utterly self destructive?
I go on to read the article and it tells me about her constant drug and alchohol use and her late night partying with outstanding memebers of the community like Paris Hilton and Mischa Barton. These girls will not stop until they are arrested for DUIs or put into rehab (which they will leave 2 weeks later.)
Of course I am appalled by this kind of behavior but also curious.
What would make a beautiful even slightly talented, america- adored girl, destroy herself?
Is this generation stained by something from the very beggining?
Do we sense the violence of our generation, a generation of "those who survived" and who did not die by their mother's "choice?"
I'm not talking just about Hollywood, the breeding ground for immorality and self-destructiveness, but of all of those who don't make it into the papers or magazines.
This generation has a serious problem.
Before people thought it was because they thought they were immortal...but that isn't the case.
They are reminded every day that they are not.
In fact they know how mortal they really are because every day they are consciously trying to kill themselves.

BUT WHY????

How do we raise good children in a disease infested generation, a generation that is told that they must drink themselves to death and then they will be happy?

It is a generation of such overwhelming violence and gangs and suicide.

What does this generation know about themselves that makes them this way? What do they sense?
Are we programmed to do this?

It makes me think first about the violence that was brought into this generation, not by those living in it but those before it and a little event called Roe vs Wade.

We are a culture of choice and only exist because your mother chose NOT to kill you.

Think about those aborted; your friends, your neighbors, your cousins and even your future spouse.

We are the ones who SURVIVED the culture of death.

Maybe thats why we are killing ourselves.

4 comments:

Geometricus said...

I saw the same magazine at Thriftway tonight when I was shopping with Rose. We both thought it was so sad. Little Gracie just loves "The Parent Trap" and watches it over and over but now whenever I see it, I just pray for poor lost Lindsay.

That movie makes her look so smart and so talented and so FUN, it's hard to believe that she is now so lost. There but for the grace of God goes all of us.

None of us can say why it happened, anymore than we can speculate on anybody's messy life and problems. But the problem of affluence has a story that we have all heard over and over again. People who suddenly get lots of money for whatever reason get what they call "affluenza" which has many symptoms. The worst symptoms involve all their key relationships changing, losing all their old friends and gaining lots of hangers-on only interested in what the rich person can do for them.

The loneliness is more than some people can stand, so they turn to drugs and alcohol and wild parties because they can afford it and there are plenty of those hangers-on to help you get hooked and messed up.

Many times in my life I have wished for more money. I tell God how much GOOD I could do, if I only had lots of money to lavish on my family, on the poor, on the Church. But God in his wisdom has seen fit to let me be comfortable, but not too comfortable. Maybe he knows what I am able to handle.

Erin, I don't think this is a unique problem of just kids today. But you do well to point out that you belong to a generation of gaps...missing people...the aborted ones. But your generation can change it by showing the world where those longings can be truly satisfied...

Erin Marie said...

No, you are right, Mr.B it is not a unique problem but seems so accepted I suppose, almost glorified in this generation that it makes one wonder.

Its just so very sad and some would say hopeless.

All you can do is pray for change!

Abecedarius Rex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Abecedarius Rex said...

"And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"