Open Letter to Earth's Children

Dear children of the world,
The grown up world that you imagine yourself living in some day is a fairy tale. The idea that all those big people around you have all the right answers and make all the right decisions just isn't real. The concept that the adults in your life lead ideal lives of purity, and you need only learn to mimic them as a rite of passage to mature perfection yourself is thoroughly inaccurate. Even those among you fortunate enough to be raised by loving guardians with the best of intentions are still being raised by people susceptible to emotional outbursts, honest mistakes, and natural selfishness- and that's okay. You see, they have to feign perfection and present themselves as ideal models in an effort to satisfy their own egos, quench their insecurities about being qualified to raise you, and give themselves the arbitrary credibility needed to command your respect without necessarily earning it. Of course, if you're at the age that you haven't figured that much out yet, you probably won't understand anything I've said so far. You will soon though.
Before you know it you'll be an adolescent, or a teenager, or a young adult, looking around wondering where all this alleged maturity is that should be manifesting itself all around you by now. You'll discover that the very adults who pried you and your peers apart years earlier from fighting over toys are still themselves fighting over land and other resources; most of them haven't learned to share yet. You were told not to pick on people for being different, but you'll find plenty of adults closing themselves off from anyone who has something new to offer- any threats to breach their comfort zones. You probably look forward to adulthood, where everyone apparently tells the truth, and nobody cheats. Unfortunately you'll find that the grownups responsible for running this planet occupy a profession that specializes in fibs and follies. The same age group that commands you to pick up your room has littered this planet with the waste it has made from the very resources it has taken. Of course, we adults haven't endangered the earth itself in our foolishly immature haste and willful short-sightedness- we've only endangered its current and future residents.
I wish I could tell you the illusions that have been created for you regarding adult life were anything more than smoke and mirrors, but it's just not the case. It would be nice if once crossing some arbitrary age line of 18, 21, or 30 each person suddenly became capable of exhibiting the most basic lessons that caring parents attempt to instill in their children- but it doesn't work that way. The sad truth is that some people never grow up, and that might be because the entire species you're a part of isn't all that mature yet itself. Our maternal galaxy hasn't paid us a whole lot of attention in terms of raising us with a great deal of discipline, and if there's a god up there responsible for planting the seeds of mankind, he's proven to be the worst dead-beat Dad in human history. On top of that we've significantly tampered with the natural selection that's done a fine job of turning most other animals on this planet into fairly efficient, well developed and keenly adapted earth residents. Meanwhile, we've caused quite a mess, quite a few times, and we've been pretty slow in the act of self-discipline.
But maybe children, just maybe... by the time you're adults, or by the time your own children, or grandchildren are adults, the actions you take as you grow up and inherit our place on this spinning rock we call Earth, you will have grown some layers of responsibility and shed some layers of egotism. Maybe, just maybe... your generation will grow up by the time that it's grown. Good luck.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• GrapplingIgnorance
• open
• letter
• children
• earth
• world
• understanding
• maturity
• growth
• planet
• educational

[hanson666999]

I hope that you publish all this stuff one day G.I! You're a really great writer :^) Thanks for uploading this.

[GrapplingIgnorance]

@hanson666999 That's very kind of you. It could happen one say, but it seems the audience here is much grander and more interactive than what I could ever hope for through non-digital publication.

[sniperfolder]

that hidden voice is hard to understand for non-english people.

So thanks for the transcription, it helps a lot.

[GrapplingIgnorance]

@sniperfolder The voice isn't hidden- just the face.

[GrapplingIgnorance]

@thinker900 Who?

[DeathnoteBB]

@breathicy why not "fuck yeah!"? I like yelling that in a positive manner.

[DraconicLich]

Thanks for the information, im 13.

[TheHotsaucekiller]

Dear, Mormons SHUT THE FUCK UP Sincerely (Insert username here)

[666Nanoko]

;_; You are so poetic, GI. It breaks my heart.

[DeathnoteBB]

If I ever have kids I want to show them this.

[Hypnails]

@breathicy I think it's called "Hey, I think you're right."