Has anyone besides me noticed that it
seems that every human being on the planet doesn't want much. They
just want what they want, and they want it like they want it when
they want it. From birth to death it is a constant struggle to get
what we want. As infants, we wail our cute little heads off for food,
attention and hygienic services. Nothing much ever changes except
that for most of our lives we can handle our own hygienic needs.
As
children we didn't really care who we inconvenienced when we thought
we needed something critical to our well being, like candy, going
outside to play, or the latest fill in the blank.
As teenagers, our right to listen to
whatever purported itself to be music at the time greatly surpassed
anyone else's right to peace and quiet. Our need for independence
surpassed our parent's concern about our safety and well being when
we were away from them. Our need to spend small fortunes on what
turned out to be trivial trinkets and mostly junk was much more
important than our parent's concern over us wasting our money. We
knew more than those old people telling us what to do.
As young adults, we couldn't believe
how disrespectful children and teenagers had become in a few short
years, sometimes months. We began to complain about how expensive it
was to buy all the things we took for granted while we were living
with mom and dad. Maybe, if we hadn't bought all those packages of
wacky racer bubble gum to get the cards, we might have a few more
dollars in our pockets. We wondered what other junk we had to show
for all the money we either earned from a job or were given as an
allowance.
On the day we became parents, we
suddenly became aware of those inconsiderate teenagers and young
adults that didn't know that babies have to get their sleep and
carried on with loud activities way past eight o'clock at night. Then
we began that tenuous journey of child raising. We became the ones
that had to do things for the good of the little angel entrusted to
us. We asked ourselves why won't they just do what we tell them. They
will never get in trouble that way. It made perfect sense. Why won't
they just listen. Frightening things began to happen as parents. We
began to hear voices, our parents voices, coming from our own mouths.
At first it was scary, then enlightenment came and we laughed at
ourselves.
Then we got to become grandparents. I
was never an uncle before I had my own children, but from what I have
observed, it might be close to being as much fun as being a
grandparent, but I'll never know. Nothing beats being a grandparent,
so far. So far she is almost always as glad to see me as my dog is.
We get to love them, spoil them and then we get a good night's sleep.
As a grandparent we get the privilege of watching our children raise
our grandchild, seeing all the things they are doing the wrong way
and biting our tongues to keep our thoughts to ourselves, at least
most of the time. We bite our tongues because our children are going
through what we went through when we were going through the phase in
the previous paragraph.
NOTE TO MY CHILDREN. I don't have to do
much tongue biting. You're doing a great job. You make me proud daily
as I watch you. I caution you that you may soon begin to hear voices
too.
As we grow more experienced (older) in
life, we begin to offer our opinions and insights to those
individuals around us that sorely need our wisdom and guidance. This
phase begins when we, as toddlers, try to convince infants that the
red sippy cup is ours and no you can't have it. You need to get your
bottle. By the time we are old, whenever that is, we are full of
knowledge about just about everything. Just ask us. But you won't, so
we have to tell you.
You see, from cradle to grave, we want
things our way. Unfortunately life is not like Burger King and we
don't always get it our way. With all that said, my premise is that
throughout life we just want what we want. We want it done the right
way, which is our way and can't understand why everyone doesn't just
listen to us and have a better life because our way is, in fact, the
best way.
If you have any questions about
anything, ask somebody, anybody. They will be glad to tell you just
what you need to do. I promise they know best.
The views expressed by the author of
this piece are entirely my own and by my own definition above, are
the only ones that matter. If you disagree, write your own. They will
be right too.
Ron
