Dispatches from Home – Depression!
Greetings!
On a friend’s FB page, Professor Charles Davis, a beloved local history teacher, posted the following statement concerning depression: “I often asked my students if they could go back in time, where would they go and during what period? One student said, ‘The womb…and never come out.'”
Depression, a prevalent issue among today’s youth, is often overlooked. It’s crucial to understand that the brain’s full development occurs later than previously believed, leaving young people susceptible to various challenges. I firmly believe that social media, while it has its benefits, can also be a source of distress and hinder wholesome lifestyles, contributing to feelings of hurt, unhappiness, and a lack of the will to live. In the face of these challenges, we must foster an understanding of depression in order to support young people dealing with it.
Every older generation looks upon the current generation with jaded eyes. But I look back on my somewhat idyllic childhood and the simpler time and place in which I grew up with bright eyes. My friends and I roamed our neighborhood streets until the streetlights came on, played with sticks that became our swords, made necklaces from clover, and rode our bikes behind the fog machine, which, in hindsight, was not the smartest thing to do, but we survived. It was a time of innocence, a time I cherish in my memories, a time when the world seemed simpler and my young heart was filled with joy.
Our imaginations were at work too. With no cell phones or TVs with hundreds of channels, we sat on back porches, counted lightning bugs, told ghost stories, and looked for sailing Spanish galleons floating in the summer clouds overhead. We skinny dipped in the local pond, waved at passing passenger trains with innocent smiles, and slipped away to the Land of Nod while listening to the antics of Red Skelton or the music of Lawrence Welk.
I’m thankful for the day and age in which I was born. Was it perfect? Heck no!! But today’s young people are bombarded with so much more trash, violence, anger, and hatred than we Boomers were back in the day. Were all those things alive and well back then? Of course, they were, but not like today. Hang in there, young folks…never give in and never give up!! Remember, Boomers’ lives were not perfect either, but we lived through tough times, and we’ve come out stronger. You can do it too!
Later Concerned Gaters.
(Originally posted August 4, 2018)