Beltane New Moon (Hungry Ghost)
A Latin day except for periods outside. I’ve found doing the chapter of Wheelock that’s next up on Sunday, at least most of it, lets me finish the chapter on Monday or at the latest Tuesday morning. That gives me Tuesday and Wednesday to work on Ovid. My tutor says I have to be very mechanical at this point, hunt for the subject, object, verb first. I have a tendency to get lost looking for meaning in all the wrong places. Just like life.
Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old girl who would circle the globe, had her main mast broken in nasty weather. The South Indian ocean, which gets a lot of its weather from the interaction of the cold Antarctic air with the warmer air from the tropics has a nasty reputation among sailors. Jessica Watson, the 16 year girl who did circle the world, passed through the Southern Indian Ocean about a month ago and she had rough weather there, too.
To say that 16 year olds should not be allowed to do this kind of thing is stupid. Perhaps most 16 year olds, or nearly all 16 year olds, but you have to leave open the option for the prodigy or the merely very competent. Jessica Watson makes the case. So does Abby Sunderland. Having a mast broken would put a stop to any sailor, no matter their level of experience. Abby did not die. She had emergency gear and plans. They all worked.
Might there be a tragedy someday? Yes, I imagine there will. Probably already has been. Alexander the Great was 20 when he set out to conquer the known world. 33 when he died. How many of today’s risk averse adults would allow their children to set out, even at 20, to conquer the world? I thought so.
My point is that teen agers are individuals, not cookie-cutter imitations of each other. Over much of history teen agers had the bulk of the babies, fought the wars and were even leaders of their families and communities. Our complex cultural environment now trends toward longer and longer periods of pre-adulthood, an article in the paper today said many Gen-Xers and Millenials will not marry, have kids or get started in their careers until they are in their late 20’s or early 30’s.
It does not change the fact that some teen agers–you know who you are–have the capacity to handle individual efforts beyond even most adults.
