Youth

I’m always a little embarrassed to bare any of myself. I always feel like the way I think and the conclusions I make about the nature of things are trite. I guess that mostly stems from people making me think that is so. I feel like older people who may have shared your ideals at some point in life believe that you will without a doubt become jaded in the exact same ways they have and end up believing the things they now believe. How do you answer, “That’s what I thought when I was your age?” Certainly there is a place for a little condescension for a young person who thinks his beliefs will not change from now until his death, and there is definitely room for condescension toward a youth whose beliefs truly will not change. What about a youth who realizes–in fact structures his entire philosophy on life around this central tenet–that he will definitely change? Doesn’t this itself negate that fallacious answer which seems to be on the tip of the tongue of everyone even a scant 10 years older than I am? I don’t care what you found because I am finding my own way. Give me something I can go on. Instead of saying, “Yeah. I was where you are. Now I’m here,” why not take me along on that journey. Maybe you missed something along the way. Maybe you are exactly right and covered every base. Maybe I need to be where you are, but I don’t know why. Wisdom is not carried through a blind assertion of personal reality as fact. Much more wisdom can come from discourse. I hope that if I am in a position to share wisdom with someone my junior, I can take that approach. I hope I can wish them well in the personal journeys I failed instead of wanting them to give up before even starting.

I had a blog in the past for a short time. It had a political focus. I wrote about 5 posts. I was really embarrassed about it, and I was sure everyone thought I was stupid. I’m going to try to stick with this. Any encouragement you could provide would be helpful. Criticism is also welcome. Not everything I post will be like this. I don’t always want to think.