Surrogate parenting?

[Ian]

Just musing on the recent threads about Taobums and what is supposedly wrong with it all, it occurred to me that a certain amount of people's dissatisfaction seems to be connected with interactions between 17-25 yr olds and, perhaps, 35-45 yr olds.

 

Now I'm generalizing, and none of this will fit anyone exactly, but I thought it might be valuable.

 

Say, for example, you're 17/18, British or American, with an interest in Taoist practice. Means you've very likely spent the last five years rejecting the values of your culture and especially your family. So you come on here and ask a few questions. You're brimming over with restless energy that many of us would give our eye teeth for, and you can barely read to the end of something before rushing off to try it out, at full throttle, for half an hour, and then come back to ask why you feel funny.

 

And some of the older inhabitants get a bit fed up. Why doesn't anybody listen, or show a bit of respect for the wisdom we spent twenty years suffering in order to stumble across ?

 

Well, if you become an authority figure by offering opinons to someone close to 20, you should know what'll happen. Have you forgotten the time when you couldn't bring yourself to do anything unless you were defying an adult in the process?

 

So message to the youth: we (unauthorised speaking on behalf of hundreds!) didn't produce you, we didn't bond with you when you were small and cute and helpless, in short we don't love you like your folks, for all their faults, so we, mostly, with exceptions, will give up on you fairly quickly if you show no signs at all of actually digesting any advice.

 

Message to self and other wrinklies: expect nothing, be brief. If someone's already received some good advice, maybe try leaving it at that.

 

This sounds like I'm telling everyone what to do. Please don't take it that way. Just suggestions.

[xtwicebornx]

Well said.

[hagar]

Just musing on the recent threads about Taobums and what is supposedly wrong with it all, it occurred to me that a certain amount of people's dissatisfaction seems to be connected with interactions between 17-25 yr olds and, perhaps, 35-45 yr olds.

 

Now I'm generalizing, and none of this will fit anyone exactly, but I thought it might be valuable.

 

Say, for example, you're 17/18, British or American, with an interest in Taoist practice. Means you've very likely spent the last five years rejecting the values of your culture and especially your family. So you come on here and ask a few questions. You're brimming over with restless energy that many of us would give our eye teeth for, and you can barely read to the end of something before rushing off to try it out, at full throttle, for half an hour, and then come back to ask why you feel funny.

 

And some of the older inhabitants get a bit fed up. Why doesn't anybody listen, or show a bit of respect for the wisdom we spent twenty years suffering in order to stumble across ?

 

Well, if you become an authority figure by offering opinons to someone close to 20, you should know what'll happen. Have you forgotten the time when you couldn't bring yourself to do anything unless you were defying an adult in the process?

 

So message to the youth: we (unauthorised speaking on behalf of hundreds!) didn't produce you, we didn't bond with you when you were small and cute and helpless, in short we don't love you like your folks, for all their faults, so we, mostly, with exceptions, will give up on you fairly quickly if you show no signs at all of actually digesting any advice.

 

Message to self and other wrinklies: expect nothing, be brief. If someone's already received some good advice, maybe try leaving it at that.

 

This sounds like I'm telling everyone what to do. Please don't take it that way. Just suggestions.

 

Point taken. err...hmmm...

 

h

[CarsonZi]

Just musing on the recent threads about Taobums and what is supposedly wrong with it all, it occurred to me that a certain amount of people's dissatisfaction seems to be connected with interactions between 17-25 yr olds and, perhaps, 35-45 yr olds.

 

Hahahahahaha.....SWEET!!! Now I KNOW I am not the problem!!! I'm 28, right in between both age brackets! Awesome. Hahahahahaha.

 

Love,

Carson

[trailmaker]

Hahahahahaha.....SWEET!!! Now I KNOW I am not the problem!!! I'm 28, right in between both age brackets! Awesome. Hahahahahaha.

 

Love,

Carson

 

 

been around here a couple of months. generally been around otherwise longer than most, and haven't

enjoyed a forum, website, etc this much, ever. longtime personal practice, and the language is still spoken.

 

of course after several thousand years a language dies hard.

 

people come here with an appreciation of/for the transitory nature of 'all things', coming to know that

in tao the status quo is change. got to like it.

[shontonga]

 

 

Message to self and other wrinklies: expect nothing, be brief. If someone's already received some good advice, maybe try leaving it at that.

 

 

 

Hahahaa! Yes! I Now Know I Am One of The "WRINKLIES"!

That sounds a bit like ... pretty sound advice right there!

Not bad kiddo.

 

Thanks Ian!

 

 

Wrinklies?

huh

 

LOL

[goldisheavy]

Good stuff.

[thelerner]

Todays song of wisdom by brother Al. (& one of my kids favorites)

 

 

 

Let me tell you sonny... let me set you straight

You kids today ain't never had it rough

Always had everything handed to you on a silver plate

You lazy brats think nothing's good enough

 

Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below

We had to walk buck naked through forty miles of snow

Worked in the coal mines twenty two hours a day for just half a cent

Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent

 

When I was your age. When I was your age

When I was your age. When I was your age

 

Let me tell you something, you whiny little snot

There's something wrong with all you kids today

You just don't appreciate all the things you've got

We were hungry, broken and miserable and we liked it fine that way

 

There were seventy three of us living in a cardboard box

All I got for Christmas was a lousy bag of rocks

Every night for dinner, we had a big 'ol chunk of dirt

If we were really good, we didn't get dessert

 

When I was your age. When I was your age

When I was your age. When I was your age

 

Didn't have no telephone, didn't have no FAX machine

All we had was a couple cans and a crummy piece of string

Didn't have no swimming pool when I was just a lad

Our neighbor's septic tank was the closest thing we had

Didn't have no dental floss, had to use old rusty nails

Didn't have Nintendo, we just poured salt on snails

Didn't have no water bed, had to sleep on broken glass

Didn't have no lawnmower, we used our teeth to cut the grass

 

What's the matter now, sonny, you say you don't believe this junk?

You think my story's wearin' kinda thin?

I tell you one thing, I never was such a disrespectful punk

Back in my time, we had a thing called discipline

 

My dad would whoop us every night till a quarter after twelve

Then he'd get too tired and he'd make us whoop ourselves

Then he'd chop me into pieces and play frisbee with my brain

And let me tell ya, Junior, you never heard me complain

 

When I was your age. When I was your age

When I was your age. When I was your age

 

 

[Birch]

Does this mean I am old?

 

Who am I???

 

I'm serious about the brain development issue. Whether that's a good thing for the kids or not (to have their pre-frontal cortex not quite there) before beginning energetic practices, I'm not sure.

 

Otherwise good post Ian.