What's Important

"And still I would add - that health, that education and also the joy of that play –is the capital that must grow and spread. Then, only, will we reach up to more equal levels of development and opportunity." Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway

It's not a talent I ever really learned or developed, playing, but it does seem that more play can't be bad and more playing at all ages could be a force for much good. It is tired and trite to say children are the future but it is true, if only because we're bound to age and die leaving only the children to care for their fellow man. Still the sentiment seems aimed more at the breeding of children like so many commodities rather than the nurturing and loving of children that allows them the freedom to be, to explore, to see for themselves and in their own right their place in and relation to the wider world. This time of year (Christmas) the "news" is filled with stories of economic woes yet the adults interviewed frequently make clear the kids will not be "shortchanged."
What?
Is this really what children want? I don't think so. I think kids want whatever thay can get (toys, electronics, etc.) because that's all they can get. Mom and dad are gone, no time to parent but only to earn paychecks. The more toys and games the better to sit for hours on end - eating mindlessly, playing alone -- no room or time to think or feel. Yep, these are the kids I want to attain majority and be given the right to vote and run the world further into the ground.
Do you think maybe God is somewhere crying about all this? Or is he just laying back waiting to see what's next?