Socrates/Plato: Complaining of the Youth

"The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers." I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.~attributed to Hesiod (8th century B.C.)

What would happen if Socrates changed his prospective of how he saw the children that he speaks of as being disrespectful, and viewed them in a different light? I’m thinking the stress levels of all concerned would have been lowered!

So it seems that the youth of today are just like the youth of times gone by. What can we do about behavior we do not like? I guess setting examples are always good, or perhaps it could be as simple as just being present. Living in the now and taking precious time together.

There are so many obstacles in this busy world of ours that get in the way of being present or being “there”. I wonder what would happen if we all learnt how to live in the moment, in the now. Not worry about the past as that has gone and cannot be changed, and the future comes soon enough without focusing on it too much.


While we are lucky to have children around us, we should take time and live in the now. I know that cannot be a 24hour place to be, but for a short time daily would be a good start. Don’t let the moments fly by, they are not ever retrievable.

Here we are, Monday again!

Reflecting on the week, a lot has been happening. On a world wide scene the financial markets are making history and world wide news, markets and banks falling, advertising doom and gloom and panic in the community. All eyes are looking at our countries leaders to Lead! Wars and terror still make headlines and you have to ask "is there ever any winners?"
At home in Australia, spring has begun and we are suffering a history making drought! Some areas not having had proper rain fall for well over 10 years! In Melbourne, the city is excited with the end of the football season and the start of the spring racing (horses) season.
There are many distractions going on, and they are all out of my control even the ones which effect me!
In my smaller community, I am hearing of friends fighting different battles. From leukemia, to prostate cancer to throat cancer to mental illness to breast cancer to brain damage to marriage trouble. All so varied and each so traumatic to each individual and each family.
All this has really highlighted to me how grateful I am for all I have. I have no control over global or larger happenings in the world, but I can tell my family and friends how much I appreciate them and love them, and choose not to take that for grated.
I heard someone say the world is going through a "birthquake" ~ perhaps we are getting a bit of a shake up, and God wants to remind us to treasure the ones we love.

Our deepest fear is not ...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,

“Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who

are you NOT to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does NOT serve the world. There

is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Spoken by Nelson Mandela

1994 Inaugural Speech

This is a wonderful posting that I have very gratefully copied from a friends blog, with her permission. It talks about our fear, so often the fear we have is the fear of not failing but of actually succeeding!

Feeling that we are not worthy to have all that we want. Well if not you, then who is worthy, why aren't you just as worthy as the next guy?

I hope this resonates with you as much as it does with me. I also hope that it may give you courage that you may have been looking for, to go that extra step and live your true desires.

Dreams

"you can't make your dream happen, if you don't have a dream!"

When was the last time you took time out to do some dreaming of your own? Perhaps you have forgotten how too, or even been so consumed with the fast pace of life that you do not have time for dreaming any more!

If you find it hard to get in touch with what you want; divide a sheet of paper in half, length ways and ask yourself ~ what don't I want? eg You may not want bad health, lack of money, no friends, unsatisfactory job, dull holiday destinations, lack of excitement, putting up with an old car etc. List these on the left hand side of your blank sheet, then write the opposite of your don't wants on the right had side. This is a good simple exercise to give you an idea of what you want. When you know what you want, then you can take action toward getting it.

While you are doing this, extend yourself ~ do a mind dump of everything and anything that you think of. Even if you feel that it is not achievable now, list it. Even start a vision board with cut-out pictures of wants and dreams. How can you bring about your wants and dreams, if you don't see it, feel it and want it?

Dream big and dream bold and have fun seeing what happens. :0)