When I think about my childhood, my growing-up years, it staggers me when I compare my experience then with how-and-when young people grow up in this day-and-age. With the internet and television, everyone has easy, private access to images and information that was absolutely unknown to children, prior to this age. Now, it’s the new norm. Sad. Society accepts this, accepts that young people know what life is all about while they are still children. Aside from this unfortunate acceptance, I feel that children miss out on a good part of the carefree years of their lives, years when there is so much innocent fun to be had. Instead, the things that they think about and participate in lack innocence, are worldly things with which they are not emotionally or intellectually equipped to deal. This has to affect each teenager’s set of values and balance, the values and balance that determine whether we get to lead a happy, fulfilling life. Or not. And a vital part of this set of values and balance includes altruism. This is something that so many adults find difficult to accommodate in their thinking, which implies that young people, on the cusp of adulthood, will find even more difficult without the right guidance. It’s as if innocence is a handicap, whereas, it should be something that all young people get to enjoy. Innocently.

Zed