Gangs

As I finish up my papers this semester I am reviewing some earlier writing. My professor praised a paper I wrote about gangs (I won't break my arm patting self on back). I thought I'd share a bit (which may sound familiar to you long-term readers)....

I smoke, I snort…I been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I’ve cleaned windshields at stoplights. I’ve polished shoes, I’ve robbed, I’ve killed. I ain’t no kid….I’m a real man. –City of God, 2002

To be there for young people, we adults need to get our own acts together. The negative world that gangs inhabit is no anomaly. When I contemplate who is responsible for seeing to it that young people are nurtured and entrusted and made to feel secure, I might say adults. However, how might adults provide this when so many—maybe even most or all—are themselves living lonely, insecure, medicated, or downright destructive existences? What does it mean to be an adult anymore? The above quote by a child running wild on the streets of the City of God hints at the confused notion of adulthood that some young people, and probably some adults, hold true. There is no clear and healthy delineation in our society between childhood and adulthood. Traditional rites of passage have been supplanted by sex, violence, and extreme limit testing. Assuming it ever was, childhood is no longer a safe haven, and adulthood seems to be more about emotional hardening than maturity. Adults can be powerful influences in the lives of children; in order to be positive influences, we need to attend to our own needs. It’s like the rules when you travel on a plane: in the event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before assisting someone traveling with you. It is impossible to take care of others when you are incapable of taking care of yourself.