The Challengers
Almost everyone seems to think the big contest today is for the presidency. I have a different point of view: that the real contest is for souls, in particular the self-saving of souls of the young by they tehmselves through striving for betterment and, along the way, experience of the world.
At present I am tracking the wanderings of two MIT graduates through the hinterlands of America, from Boston to the upper reaches of the West, east of the Rockies, down through Colorado, and back "home."
This would not be possible were it not for two sweeping technological advances of my latter life -- the laptop computer and cellphone -- and an adjunct to them: the weblog.
One of these is an immigrant from one of the Nearer-East countries of the West redeemed after the fall of the Berlin Wall.* The other is my own daughter, fortunate enough to have been born with the lipstick of God still damp upon her forehead, into a family that -- by striving to make it happen -- afforded her a private school education that she honored as she did herself.
They've been camping: that's what young folks do since memory can recall, and finding themselves showers along the way -- and one KOA that has recently installed wireless for its patrons. When she was about eight my daughter pronounced that the only thing she would need to stay on at the primitive lake, where we take sporadic summer vacations without benefit of the flush toilet or even cold showers, would be a good book and computer access. We had quite a good laugh over that, my wife and I. Little did we understand the tendency of the modern age to fulfill her wish.
The thing about young folks today that most interests me is their resourcefulness, mindfulness, and bewildering drive to make a problem (set?) out of anything that might fall into the whirlpools of conversation in which they are always to be found -- all for the sheer joy of solving it. They challenge everything about them and one another, gracefully or not. They are bold, brash, full of joy, and abounding in information that stymies onlooker ability to quickly comprehend what is happening at any given moment. They have taught me what the deeper meaning of "breath-taking" is, and I am often wheezing at the ventricles of my brain, foot racing to keep up.
They read. They write. They expound ... endlessly, to be sure. They stick to it: they are the challengers.
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* You'll note that I do not write "since the fall of communism," which I do not think has fallen, but is merely in shallow hiding that, thinks me, seems to have at least three-quarters of the world duped. Stand by.
At present I am tracking the wanderings of two MIT graduates through the hinterlands of America, from Boston to the upper reaches of the West, east of the Rockies, down through Colorado, and back "home."
This would not be possible were it not for two sweeping technological advances of my latter life -- the laptop computer and cellphone -- and an adjunct to them: the weblog.
One of these is an immigrant from one of the Nearer-East countries of the West redeemed after the fall of the Berlin Wall.* The other is my own daughter, fortunate enough to have been born with the lipstick of God still damp upon her forehead, into a family that -- by striving to make it happen -- afforded her a private school education that she honored as she did herself.
They've been camping: that's what young folks do since memory can recall, and finding themselves showers along the way -- and one KOA that has recently installed wireless for its patrons. When she was about eight my daughter pronounced that the only thing she would need to stay on at the primitive lake, where we take sporadic summer vacations without benefit of the flush toilet or even cold showers, would be a good book and computer access. We had quite a good laugh over that, my wife and I. Little did we understand the tendency of the modern age to fulfill her wish.
The thing about young folks today that most interests me is their resourcefulness, mindfulness, and bewildering drive to make a problem (set?) out of anything that might fall into the whirlpools of conversation in which they are always to be found -- all for the sheer joy of solving it. They challenge everything about them and one another, gracefully or not. They are bold, brash, full of joy, and abounding in information that stymies onlooker ability to quickly comprehend what is happening at any given moment. They have taught me what the deeper meaning of "breath-taking" is, and I am often wheezing at the ventricles of my brain, foot racing to keep up.
They read. They write. They expound ... endlessly, to be sure. They stick to it: they are the challengers.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* You'll note that I do not write "since the fall of communism," which I do not think has fallen, but is merely in shallow hiding that, thinks me, seems to have at least three-quarters of the world duped. Stand by.
posted by Duct Tape at 7:13 AM
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