Lawyers Road Review

One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever. Ecclesiastes 1:4-11New King James Version

My son chose a life as a school custodian. In many ways I respect this decision. His responsibilities are limited, and he does not have the stresses of everyone else in the family who have the more cerebral vocations. Most of all, he has time.

The Dude Abides

He does not take the job home with him. Unlike most of the family, he is able to shut down the job when the whistle blows and slide down the back of the dinosaur and declare “YabaDabaDOO!

His sister and I have a cerebral day jobs which means there are no hours, the mind continues to work on whatever was on your desk that day.

Sometimes John’s job is hard. He has to put up with the conduct of the modern middle school student. This segment of the next generation apparently has not yet been civilized. As one priest I know put it, children are barbarians, and it is the parent’s job is to civilize them.

Apparently, this generation of parents have failed in this task. It might not be their fault. Who knows what the kids see on their cell phones? Not giving a kid a cell phone only means they will look at one a friend has. Besides, you can’t set a tracker on a kid if you don’t give them a cell phone.

Whatever the cause the evidence of cultural collapse shows up at school.

Lockers no longer populate middle schools or high schools as they are merely hiding places for drugs and weapons. Instead, everyone carries a backpack with all they need through the day.

For a time, trashing bathrooms seemed to be the sport of choice; hammered commodes, sinks ripped from the wall and yogurt, milk and even feces spread about. This has now segued into a glue sport; spread glue wherever possible, particularly the carpets.

They tried introducing recycling at the school, but the kids just throw whatever is in their hands into whatever receptacle is at hand, without regard to sorting. Recycling was abandoned in the wake of this conduct.

We see John for lunch most weekends. He works the 12PM to 8:.30PM shift. I work all the time.

On a recent weekend he remarked that he had taken his contractual personal day to avoid working the Friday night dance.  “Whatever you do, don’t work the middle school dance night.”

I recall the dance nights as a time of innocence, usually chaperoned by parents. Apparently, this is not the case any longer and as one would expect the results are often barbarous. At the school and beyond he witnesses the culture in collapse.

Most of his male peers are worse off than him. Many have sired children themselves and abandon them, angered when the girl they got in trouble calls for help, or worse money.

Some of these boys have stayed with the mother of their children yet work in gig economy jobs never getting anywhere. They telephone John and ask for guidance. He says what he can, but it never takes. They live in an endless cycle of failure.

I ask what has become of the American myth? If we recall, this included taking impossible risks, like loading up the wagon and moving west. Why not find any job, however menial and save for that day you can leave with wife and children for a better life elsewhere? Step on the gas and wipe that tear away.

Johns sister Rachel headed east 15 years ago and eventually landed a job at the Whitehouse. The position had its demands, and it is time to leave. Yet she is glad she worked there.

Alternatively, how about working yourself to a position to be attractive to a more remunerative placement locally? That is what my son chose. And in the long run I expect it will serve him well. Why is it these peers of his cannot start climbing the ladder or at least find a job with a pension?

A woman on the bench I know recently remarked on this phenomenon. Today’s young women are ascendant, and young men chronically fail. She said, “We have now spent decades now focused on young women, and ignored young men.”

The message to these boys is this: You now pay the price of your fathers’ sins; historical male dominance. It’s all about the girls now. Game over.

Is it really any wonder so many young men find themselves directionless? Still, I have to believe most might wake up one day, look around and drive a stake into the ground as the starting place and don’t look back.

John and I in the Tonto National Forest, Arizona.

Instead, a certain savagery has taken hold. And we, the American culture, will reap the harvest of this neglect. What was an ascendant path for young men is Gone with the Wind.

But the Dude Abides, and remember the wisdom of his experience:

Whatever you do, don’t work the middle school dance night.