Helping Young People Find Their Stride
There are few things in life so pleasing to
the soul as helping young people grow, whether
they are your own children, or just young people
you work with.
It doesn't take much, really. A bit of encouragement, a positive response, the forgiveness of small errors in the course of a day is all that is needed to keep a young person striving to prove themselves to themselves, and in so doing, to you.
There is no lack of enthusiasm in our young people today, in spite of many opinions to the contrary. What is often perceived by their elders as an unwillingness to produce is, in fact, just the opposite: it's a need to produce something meaningful.
Meaning is what it's all about to these kids, and there is precious little meaning in their lives today. What meaning can one find in handing yet another double-cheeseburger to yet another cholesterol-chomping consumer ? What meaning is there in a car payment ? Not much, we're afraid.
But there is meaning in creating new things, and there's plenty of creating to do around here. The livecam is just a more visible symbol of the creative energy that we see in the local web community, mainly among the younger members. That is as it should be.
Creativity is borne of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm has a way of affecting people, and making them feel a part of what's going on.
So much so, in fact, that Meshach stared back at us the other day and asked... "Is there some special magic, then, to this thing called a week ? Isn't it always now, after all ?"
As usual, old plain-buttons is right, and during yet another blah-blah emergency editorial meeting at the palatial SJ Tower Plaza, it was decided that The Shore Journal would change its focus from a weekly to a "nowly" publication.
So starting this morning, and henceforth and all of that, our editors and production slaves will publish articles as they are available and as they are warranted. Articles will be dated, added to the top of the Table of Contents, and fall off the bottom into the archives when their readership trails off.
As is so evident from our eye on the world, it's always now, no matter what time it is.
June 2, 1996 Charles Paparella All Rights Reserved