FAULTS

One of my faults (of which there are many!), is that I can sometimes be too quick to make a judgment about some of our younger people these days.

I see them every day, and so do you. Upon spotting them, I might snicker to myself or just shake my head. I want to ask them, “What were you thinking?” You know the ones. They may be black, white or latino. They may be male or female. We’ve seen them all.

The boy has his baseball cap on sideways. His shorts are baggy and the bottom hem hangs to nearly his ankles. The beltline is in the middle of his butt, but fortunately his boxers or silk gym trunks he’s wearing underneath hides his butt crack.

The girls aren’t much better. She has a skin tight knit top on, that doesn’t reach her waist line so her belly is showing. Many of them can’t afford to pull the top down further to cover the belly because it is also low cut. If they pull the top down any more, there’d be no questions to ask about her boobs because they’d be hanging out for all to see. And many times, that belly really needs covered. It has several rolls that just aren’t attractive in that type of clothing.

And don’t get me started about the tattoos and the piercings. The eyebrow rod, the earlobe hole big enough to stick your finger through. I want to say, “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

I just don’t get it !

Ah…but they can snicker right back at us ‘older folks’. You’ve seen us too. The guys that, in summer, like to wear sandals with white socks on. Or the shorts and dress shoes with black sox pulled up to our knees. The younger crowd probably want to say, “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

ALL adults aren’t like that…and ALL kids aren’t like that either. There are a lot of great kids out there…black, white, latino, male, female…who are good students and have desires to do great things with their lives and for other people. They do community activities that we don’t hear about. They work at jobs to try to better themselves. They help their parent(s) take care of little brothers and sisters. They study and get good grades and apply for, and get accepted at, colleges that we could only dream about. They play instruments and compose their own music. They use their athletic talent to run, play basketball, baseball, football, soccer, swim. Some set school records, win state titles, earn scholarships to colleges. Some are preparing to enter medical school, law school, become engineers, learn a trade.

And some of these same kids wear their hats sideways, and their shorts hang too low and their belly hangs out of their tops.

I still don’t get it, but I’ll work on trying to be less judgmental.

Oh, please do me a favor. If you ever drive by my house and see me walking out to the mail box in my shorts and black sox to my knees, roll down your window and shout, “Dan… have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”


Dan