Trying to Survive

When you are a child, how responsible can you be concerning your actions?

We teach our children the ABC's and 123's, 'please' and 'thank you'. But do we teach them compassion? How to be kind to others? How to be sensitive to another's needs when they are crippled, handicapped, or just plain different? How can children be held responsible for knowing how to act correctly, if no one (their elders) shows them?

For a child to really learn a lesson, they need to FEEL...feel what it's like to be berated, cheated, victimized. No one wants to berate, cheat, or victimize their children to teach them a lesson...do they? Not aware, kind, loving parents, no!

But the kids who themselves were berated, cheated or victimized know no different. They assume that is how you're supposed to treat your loved ones. And so the generational cycle begins. Some, though, are gifted with strength to change.

When you were a child, how responsible were you for how you treated others? Did you even know kindness, respect, value? Sometimes, we go through life just doing what we have to in order to survive. Sometimes, it's not pretty.

Sometimes, you find yourself at thirty-something, wondering why you ended up...