There must be millions of thoughts to talk about. If you just let your mind wander, they soon begin to bubble up to the surface. This is something that happens throughout a lifetime.

 

As a young man however, because I was living life like an express train, these “thoughts” were but fleeting moments in time, and rarely had any relevance and few comparisons. The reason is fairly obvious and due to my short lifespan at that time.

 

Now that I am an old man they still appear from the depths of my memory, but are accompanied by stark comparisons compounded by my experiences over many years of living.

Thought comparisons can be at times vividly conflicting depending upon your personal travels through life. You can conjure up as many comparisons as you like. There are limits to free speech, but thankfully not to free thought.

 

To get down to basics when I was growing up life was simple. You lived within the moral confines of the day. If you did not, you were practically subjected to banishment. It started with your family and rippled out into your immediate community. The shame quickly snapped you back into the mainstream, and then life went on, never knowing of course if you had been completely exonerated or not. That was your punishment.

 

In today’s younger generation to a very noticeable degree, shame does not seem to be appearing in their thought processes. A blatant disregard for others in their immediate habitats seems to be passed over without recognition. The missing factor is fear. No fear for the results from irresponsibility. Shame and fear go hand in hand, and if we are losing those elements, we are in for a rough ride ahead.

 

Here is a mild example that I personally experienced.

 

It was the day after Christmas. I sat listening to one of the local youngsters. He was talking to my grandson. “What did you get” “no you first” and so it went on until my grandson relented. “I got $200”

He responded with a cocky tone in his voice. “Is that all. My Granddad gave me $500“.

Words could not describe the rush of adverse feelings I got. Even young children were now responding to a world of material gain and as a result placing themselves as better than others.

My second thoughts were more compelling. If I could only have had the opportunity of spending just a few moments with his Granddad to let off a bit of steam, and ask him if he was aware that there were other ways to express his love for his grandson other than slapping 500 smackeroos in his hand, and putting him on the path to becoming an arrogant little b….....r.

 

Now for my thought comparison.

 

I grew up during the Great Depression. So here is my bleak comparison. We were poor and everyone living around us were poor. Nothing was purchased new. Only secondhand, or hand me downs. I received my first purchased Christmas present at around 12 years old. Prior to that my father had a small workshop and he would make each of us a present out of wood with a painted finish to suit. They were always kept secret until we opened our stockings on Christmas morning. It must have given my father the ultimate satisfaction.

 

So how can I describe my first purchased present? Well, it was an old-World War 1 model bi-plane (two wings) pressed out of tin. It had a propeller, which, when you flicked it with your finger to make it spin you could run around with it at arms length doing dives and banks to simulate flight. In this day and age, it must be impossible to comprehend what I have just described, and completely boggle the minds of youngsters now full of I pods, Cell phones, and not to forget those 500 smackeroos mentioned earlier.

 

Even though we were poor and underprivileged, with no social security safety net that we have today, all my Christmas’s growing up were happy ones. In addition, I can categorically say that in those days we never resorted to rioting, breaking shop windows to steal and all the other mayhem perpetrated by present day teenagers that have a multitude of benefits available to them.

In conclusion I would like to introduce a couple of new elements into the thought process. They are called love and security. In this modern society it seems that both are a bit thin on the ground, and perhaps a plausible reason why some youngsters go off the rails.

 

To reinforce what I have just said here is something that I have remembered throughout all of my life. 85 years ago I was standing with my mother looking out of the window watching four youths walking down our village lane. Three had shaven heads, wearing studded leather jackets, and bovver boots, the other sporting a Mohawk haircut, the peaks of which were tinted with yellow. Their body language portrayed the message that if you got in their way there would be trouble afoot. We both watched quietly as they approached to pass by the house. Mother broke the silence with a sympathetic tone in her voice

 

“poor things, nobody loves them”.

 

That said it all.