You Never Know

From the Stoa this day, I ponder our impact upon those around us. So many people shoot their mouths off without regard to the damage their words do to those around them. Sometimes unintentionally, sometimes, very intentionally.

In this case, I'm thinking good things.

Sometimes parents think that their kids have cement in their heads. You can look straight at someone, say, my son for instance, and tell him to put his socks in the hamper. The head will bob and he will give a sign of understanding.

Two hours later, the socks are still on the floor...

They do hear you. They don't always listen...or take out their earbuds for that matter.

But sometimes, just sometimes, they say things that let you know that they are listening and retaining the important stuff.

Sometimes my son will go on and on about some discovery he has thought up or explain to me how this event connects to another event.

It is just as hard for me to pay attention sometimes, so I'm no better. I'm patient in that I usually let him ramble on about fairly meaningless things, but I do listen, just at a dialed down level.

The other day, the boy blew my mind. He started rambling and I kept on doing what I was doing, and when he finished I had to take a mental double-take.

He does listen. He can interpret things that have nothing to do with HALO, or shooting zombies. He has listened and understood some of the conversations I routinely have with my daughter about people and the human condition.

From nowhere, the boy says to me, "You know dad, your generation looks to the stars and says, 'I want to go there.', mine looks at the same stars and says, 'Someone needs to take me there."

Holy crap, I thought. The boy has said something that was completely original and blew me away.

We then talked about what he had just said and decided that he was really on to something. We quickly sketched in the other generations. Here they are, lined up to make our point:

Gen X: I want to go to the stars.

Millennial: Someone needs to take me to the stars.

Boomer: Why go, you'll just pollute and rape them anyways.

Silent: I'll help whoever goes.

GI: Been there.

I'm still trying to put my head back together. He may not have a lot of things worthwhile to say (again, think Halo and zombies), but when he does, boy does he!

Think about those sayings. You can see the self-evident truth of them.

Live well, and thanks, boy, for becoming a contributor to the Stoa and the Arena of Ideas.

--Zavost