I saw an 18 year old girl yesterday put air quotes on the word “love.” She was asked by her friend if she loved her boyfriend. And she shrugged, saying, “I guess I ‘love’ him whatever that means” with the air quotes.
You see, she wasn’t questioning her feelings for him. She was questioning the existence of love itself. And I wondered what went wrong with this girl’s life. She’s sitting in the bleachers of her sister’s softball game on a beautiful day with car keys dangling from her fingers and an IPhone in her palm. And she seems hopeless.
And I don’t think she’s alone. I think cynicism, ironic detachment, and hopelessness are prevalent in children today. It’s odd that a generation to whom has been given marvels of technological advancements, such widespread bitter unhappiness has resulted.
Plato said, “Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.” I think it’s safe to say, we’ve done the opposite of that.
April 20, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Thank you.
April 20, 2012 at 5:45 pm
It is difficult to raise "Alleluia" children in a Catholic Church which says "Whatever", or does not even respond, as neither Cardinal Dolan nor Bishop Burbidge did recently when it was made clear to them that a valid marriage
needed their intercession.
I understand what you are saying Matthew but our clergy are pathetic, by choice. Theirs.
I wish we could fire them!
Sorry, Father Z, the Mass in Latin IS NOT enough to cure the cancer in the
Catholic Church. No doubt it helps.
Karl
April 20, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Matt,
If you're looking for cynicism, ironic detachment, and hopelessness, you should look to CMR's own posting of the "If I Had A Dog…" parody and the responses to it.
Physician, heal thyself.
April 21, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Love and joy require innocence– and there's a cottage industry of attacking, mocking and destroying innocence. I've read some bronies complaining about how this or that fic seems to have been written just to poop on the notion of innocence in the My Little Pony series.
Of course, everything being shoehorned into politics (and the "evil or stupid" form, rather than "both sides have reasons for what they do" form) doesn't help.