Half Full
“I wake up angry and go to bed depressed” one of my Running Buddies began on a recent humid slog. “The world is falling apart. Millions of Americans are being stripped of their healthcare. Little girls drowned in Texas for no reason. I don’t know what to tell my children.”
Another sweaty parent spoke up. “We were brought up to do what’s right, help out, contribute. I don’t know what to tell my children either. If I do try to raise them to be decent humans, will they be at a competitive disadvantage?"
"Exactly," another plodder agreed. "How will my kids get along in the world where everyone else is using AI to write their college admissions essays?”
“Right. They are surrounded by computer-enhanced cheaters. How can my kids compete against the other students who have billions of dollars of technology in their corner?”
I was too cognitively impaired from the early morning miles to come up with a cogent response in real time, but I have subsequently given the matter some thought.
Yes, academic dishonesty abounds. But kids were secreting formulas on their sneakers generations before Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace, and Jonny von Neumann invented thinking machines. Cheating may be more sophisticated in 2025, but it is hardly novel.
Yes, there is unpleasantness currently. I am not the first to point out the current events seem especially fraught. “Discuss politics at Thanksgiving; save money on Christmas presents" is read. As a child, I was taught that certain topics should not be discussed in mixed company. A generation later, there aren't any safe topics.
Or so it seems. Just as “Dog Bites Man“ is not a headline, neither is “local family has meandering conversation over dinner, agrees to disagree on volatile topics, and looks forward to seeing each other next Sunday.” Family disagreements are not unique to current headlines.
“If it bleeds, it leads,” brings us to only hearing about families who are torn apart by disparate views on climate change, abortion, trans rights, vaccines, guns, funding for education, the public good. Not everyone is jumping up on the table sputtering about why they have insight and vision and the rest of the stupid, stinking world wears glasses.
It could be argued that “what do I tell my kids about cheating?” and “how do I keep my head from popping off my neck when my sister’s husband starts in again about how the Earth was created 6000 years ago?” are different issues. But I would suggest—gently and in good faith—that the questions have more in common than might first appear. In both cases, we have to communicate to our children that the world may be a sterile promontory replete with vociferous maroons, but that their family home most certainly is not a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. Cheaters, pontificating dim bulbs, and Koolaid embibbers may be ubiquitous. But our home is—if not a castle—at least founded on a rock, less quintessence of dust, more majestical roof fretted with golden fire.
I mentioned this view—that the situation is not as bad as it seems--at the next run. I said that we only hear about the outliers and that most people – – in our zip code anyway – – aren’t completely crazy. Members of my Running Group pushed back hard.
“Twenty-three million Americans lost their healthcare. Our neighbors are being kidnapped in the middle of the night. Children are being separated from their families. America is losing a generation of scientists. Our country will no longer leave the world in research, education, and decency.”
Points taken. Again there is a lot to be concerned about and good people everywhere are trying to do what they can to move us forward. I encourage my readers to get involved, take a stand, give back, pay it forward.
But Hans Rosling points out in his exquisitely detailed Factfulness that infant mortality in Malaysia has dropped from 93 per 1000 births in 1960 down to 35 per thousand 40 years later. What a cause for celebration. Fewer deaths, fewer tragedies. More hope, more happiness.
And speaking of our beloved children, note that they are right there with us, just down the hall. They are healthy and whole, vaccinated against diseases that wiped out generations. Infant mortality in the US is about five per thousand.
From 1900 through 1980, small pox killed over 300,000,000 people. From 1981 until today, small pox hasn't bothered anybody. Small pox is done; small pox is over. Small pox will never kill another child anywhere in the world.
If that statistic doesn't cause you to weep with gratitude then you might be reading the wrong blog.
Your kids are safe from small pox. Your kids can be active, involved, forward-thinking, and still be safe from horrific headlines.
Yes, it's tragic and stupid that those little girls died in Texas. Yes, it's inexcusable that the scientists who would have protected them were fired. Yes, all good people need to do what they can to do what's right.
But you can communicate to your kids that they are safe. That way they can grow up healthy and whole and contribute to positive change for your grandchildren.
