You can speak in grunts here.
It's strange to look at an old picture of yourself and try to comprehend that this person was you.
I have a picture from the mid-80's sometime of me in a silly pose (surprise!) I had pulled it out for a "yearbook" of sorts that Jeff, Suzy and Cherie are putting together. I just stared at it, trying to comprehend how the memories I have of being that age really happened.
It just doesn't seem real that I was that young, and whenever I tell a story about anything from that time, it always feels to me like I'm telling it in the third person. It's almost like there's a statue of limitations on personal memories.
And it's even stranger now, that I'm halfway across the world. Thinking that back then, I could never imagine myself in 15 years - doing anything, really. A year would have been hard to handle foreseeing.
Yet, in this picture, there's some knowledge that seems to be behind my eyes, like everything is going to work out, and if things start to fall apart, just be silly. It's amazing to me how that really hasn't changed in 15 years.
And then I try to apply this thinking to the children here. They don't really think about the future here, because it's just too uncertain.
In the States, you can ask "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and get some pretty lofty answers all around.
To ask the same question here, it wouldn't make any sense. First of all, you would have to explain "grown up" - and "adult". Is it a set age? Is it when you get married? Is it when you have children? Secondly, most would respond that they would continue to either work on the farm or do whatever their parents do.
This is not to say that this is a bad response - it's really much more realistic than ours. Even though we CAN become astronauts and presidents, the aspiration for such careers can totally devastate some people. If you have realistic goals, you don't suffer disappointment, but you also don't have chance to do something bigger.
So what's better? Idealism or realism? Or does it depend on the availability of work? Should we promote dreaming about careers 99% of the people could never have? Or simply improve the quality of life of those who know what they're going to do for the rest of their lives?
Peace
John
