Hey Kids...

For all the Doom & Gloom being fed to our kids, here's my letter of hope.

Hey kids, Growing up is awesome.

Don’t listen to the people that tell you otherwise.

Sure, it’s fun to be young and relatively free from responsibility, but with responsibility comes a richness in life. With complexity comes deeper understanding. With longevity comes a level of love and appreciation you simply can’t know when you are young. It’s not your fault. You’ll get there. No need to rush it, but don’t fight it either.

Don’t waste your time listening to the doom & gloom people. It’s ok to make fun of them in your head. And with your friends.

Get out. Do shit. Experience the sun & moon. Experience other people. Sleep on the beach and don’t worry about bug bites. Go in the mountains even when there is a storm. Take a jacket and a snack and some water. You’ll be fine. Go for a walk in the lightning storm.

There are a million people trying to sway you because you aren’t old enough to recognize the grifters yet, but you will one day, and when you are their age, keep telling them to fuck off and leave the next set of young kids alone too. There will always be grifters to tell to fuck off. Be part of the solution.
Don’t fear for life on the planet. It will keep going. But do resist from people trying to start wars. They are 99% only doing it for money and power. Period. Don’t listen to anyone that says otherwise. Negotiations and peace save lives, but don’t make as much money. Once in a great while a nasty evil arrises and needs to be dealt with, and you will recognize it easily, but if the main street news is telling you about it, it probably isn’t it. Once in a great while you will need to fight, but hopefully never and it will never be fun.

I’ve managed to go my whole life without a fist fight. And I don’t regret avoiding a single confrontation. The world has a weird segment that loves to fight. Just avoid them like the plague.

And remember this: When it’s hot no one remembers the cold. When it’s dry, no one remembers the rain. When its lush, nobody remembers the drought. The world cycles through all these things. None ever last forever. There is nothing new under the sun. I think that’s from Ecclesiastes or something.

If someone tells you who they are, listen.

But remember that actions speak louder than words.

Don’t fear the future. Work towards it.

Build some shit. Build anytime you start to feel down. Create something even, and especially, if you aren’t good at it. Make some music. Make something out of wood. Buy some paints. Draw for no good reason. Carve a chunk of wood with your pocketknife.

Eventually get a dog. You’ll never meet anyone that loves you as much as a dog.

Read more, scroll less. You’ll thank me later.

Walk as many places as you can.

Look up in the trees.

Take that picture. Who cares if you have 50 just like it?

A million people will tell you all the world’s problems are yours. They aren’t. That is why you should never ever trust what you hear in social and news media. Better to trust what you see on your walks and what you read in books. You’ll never get the full story or know it all. Books are hard to write. Find ones written by humans. Even if they are wrong, they took dedication and deeper thought to make. TikTok is essentially no richer than a fart.

And please know that whatever hard things come up, you can overcome them. Humans are tough as shit.

Don’t be afraid of relationships.

Don’t be afraid of dedication.

Don’t be afraid of work.

Don’t be afraid of standing tall in front of bullies. Embrace all these things.

Go all in with what you do even if it’s helping someone else more than you, especially actually.

Go all in. Get tired. Fail. Get embarrassed. Don’t count the likes. Don’t count the followers. You only need a few really good friends. They will be worth more than 5M followers. Recognize the dopamine for what it is, and what it isn’t.

Kiss the person you love and hold their hand in the dark.

Jump in that creek even if you don’t have a change of cloths.

Skinny dip.

Don’t waste time arguing, but do be willing to discuss with people you disagree with. There is a difference. One is conversation, one is just speaking into closed can in front of another person. You can figure out which is which.

Trust your gut. Instincts are a real thing.

Get a bike. Seriously, not of the environment, not to save money, but for fucking fun. Get a bike and ride it.

Anyone that tells you they alone know how to save the earth or society is lying or a fool. Sometimes both. Sometimes they are just unwittingly selling something for someone else.

You can’t save the world. You don’t need to even try actually. Just live logically. Take care of where you are. If you stay at a friends place, clean up after yourself, and maybe even do their dishes just to be nice. Do this with the world at large too. The idiom: “Leave it better than you found it” is a good one.

Now midlife, I don’t regret the sadness of a single lost love. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and we never know why. These threads seem left and broken when they occur. But in the end I think these threads will weave a tapestry of immense beauty. We can’t see that when we are young. Don’t fear heartbreak. But don’t wallow too long either.

Politicians are mostly% corrupt. Never forget that.

The more your government tells you to trust it, the more you shouldn’t.

Same goes for religious people and salesmen. Hell, people in general. The only people asking you to trust them are people that probably don’t deserve your trust.

Get a frisbee and play with some friends down at the park.

Go night swimming in a lake.

Lay back and watch the sky in the dark. And listen.

Leave your phone at home periodically and don’t think about it.

Go find some ducks to feed if you are bored.

Having kids will not ruin the planet, don’t listen to anyone that says so.

Don’t be afraid of the inevitable pivots you will make in life…One comes when/if you have kids. Another comes when they leave you. Raising kids isn’t actually raising kids… it’s raising adults. If it’s a route you go on, don’t dread it. Embrace it. You’ll get to relive your youth through new eyes. You’ll learn a lot about life.

Don’t be afraid to grow up. Don’t be afraid to move on from people you know you don’t want to be around. Friendships evolve. Our understanding of what’s important evolves. It will change. Let it.

Travel from time to time, to places you haven’t been. Just for shits and giggles. Just to see something new. How do you know where? Just think of something you’ve always been curious about.. go there. You may hate it. You may love it. Or something in-between but you will never be quite the same as you travel. Travel does that. It’s like a book, but full immersion.

The main thing I hope to convey is this: Life is good. Even when it hurts. Or is sad. There is so much doom & gloom being served it makes me quite frustrated. Young minds should be able to experience the real life without being inundated with the total fears of the globe, but sadly this new technological age has embraced throwing it all at you at once. It’s wrong, and many of us know it, but there isn’t much we seem to be able to do about it, so I’m writing these words for the few that will see them… life on earth is good and interesting, and most people on the planet share this perspective in common… they just want to live and laugh and enjoy their days here, which will go faster than you imagine, accelerating a little every day of your life. So lastly, realize the real world doesn’t exist in this digital space. It’s out in the air, under the trees, under the stars, down the sidewalk and among the pines. It’s out in the country, it’s in the park, it’s laughing with friends at work, it’s the walk to and from, and the quiet in between.