longriver7's Blog

{Or how this should completely go without saying} Something is wrong. Our children, in my case four nephews and a niece, are lost. They're not at large geographically, but lost in their own little worlds. A place so artificial, it bears little resemblance to the one i grew up in. Suburban kids live demanding lives thanks to the scholastic pressure they are under, totally detached from the natural world just outside their doors. This complete disconnect from Mother Earth comes courtesy of overwhelmed parents, a frenetic after school curriculum, spoiled child syndrome, and surely not the least , the computer.
You see, i grew up playing in the woods and fields. I'm not a country boy. I didn't grow up on a farm. It was a rural suburban tract in the middle of town. A creek, with a mill, flowed near by. No one forced the outdoors on me. It was there for the taking and i fully embraced it. All of that is gone now save for a little patch of forest. Just one lot remains out of twenty-seven. I still visit those woods where i climbed vines, built forts and learned how to fish down by the dam. But there's trouble on the horizon. Dark clouds are moving across the wide open blue sky, punctuated with cumulous formations. My nephews in Nazareth, Pa. six year old twins and a nine year old don't respond to nature like i did. When we go on short hikes or ride to the reservoir the awe isn't there. The way they act it (State Park) may as well be a mall. A Turkey vulture once flew overhead and not only did they forget what it was, they didn't see it. I said how can you not notice a huge, black bird with a six and a half foot wingspan { sometimes seven} flying right over your little heads?
But they are learning. They know their native animals, a thing or two about tracking (i'm not a hunter and that i loath litter.) I can't yet say to them what i want my bumper sticker to read; People Who Litter Suck. They're good boys though, well behaved , disciplined and really getting into sports now. My affluent twin brother and his wife though, have spoiled them beyond belief. In their house, materialism reigns. I'd like to thank my brother at this point for making my job that much harder.
It is other children that worry me however. Adrift in cyberspace or entrenched in video game warfare today's young teens are sincerely lost in space in regard to nature. They wouldn't know a Red Tailed hawk if one landed squarely on their empty heads. With the tantalizing tentacles of the computer around every corner of the house, idol kids have a world of atrocious, illicit material at their fingertips. And these video games, as adults know, are no good. They replicate violence, condone violence and ultimately manifest violence in society's worst nightmare; a homicidal maniac at loose with a gun. (My nephews only play Wii games and i tell them you don't kill your opponent, you vanquish them.)
So the point of all this? Teach our children a healthy respect for the outdoors, especially  animals and get out there. Take a kid fishing (don't litter), hiking or to a local zoo. Find a far flung field to fly a kite or model rocket. The latter should teach them about science and physics better than any book can do. The troubled youth of our nation regardless of race, creed, color or affliction must return to nature in some capacity. It may not only make their day, it will help them blaze a trail through the wilderness of myth and confusion that prevails in an 'urban warrior' kingdom.