I saw them as I was passing by late Sunday afternoon. A young couple, maybe eighteen, nineteen years old, sitting on the sidewalk, side-by-side, their skateboards and similarly mod style of dress and grooming: he, with a goatee and long, brown hair tied with a bandanna, and she with pigtails and black t-shirt and jeans, identifying them as members of their chosen affiliations.
I smiled, momentarily remembering our generations' own early summer days, and thought how quickly those times passed.
I thought about the hopes we had at that age for our own lives: homes and families and schools and work, the future as we'd hoped it would be for us. The future some of my younger, twenty-something acquaintances are creating right now, with first children on the way, and new businesses and ventures being built.
I remember what it was like to be that age, and be hopeful and anxious, and a little overwhelmed by it all.
I have a hope now too. A hope that this young couple and others like them will still have the opportunity to live those wonderful and completely ordinary lives.
Will they?
I was talking with a member of the faculty at campus one evening, when a young man and women, students, went walking across the quad, hand in hand, heading off towards town.
My friend remarked, "there goes two kids who don't have any idea what's going on in the world."
To which I replied, "it was our job to ensure they didn't have to."
Have you done your part of that job?
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