Friday 18 March 2011

Japan... as seen by a 14 year old boy

Talked with a friend on the phone yesterday. A mentor really. He asked what I was thinking and feeling about the multiple disasters in Japan. My answer was immediate.

"I'm watching it through the eyes of my son."

Teenage boys are prone to absent mindedness. Sometimes they will even leave their Facebook page open on your laptop. We've got a 'we can ask to look at your Facebook page anytime' policy in our place anyway (it kind of works). I saw something he had written on his 'chat'... 'the world is ending'. The mighty Lisa (aka 'better half') is an astute observer and mentioned that we should keep an eye on the young bloke.

"He's frightened". Lisa spots things as they are.

When I was my son's age, I recall that period of time between, first becoming aware of the exponential number of times Earth could destroy itself with its own nuclear weapons and later, managing to rationalise that such an event is unlikely and that if it did happen, we wouldn't know about it for too long. In that gap of time (which was a few of my early teenage years) I thought every time a plane went overhead that that was the bomb on its way to hit the GPO. Did you ever wonder why those graphs showed nuclear fallout extending from the General Post Office? That only fuelled my fear further... 'how can they be so accurate?'

During that gap in time, quite simply, I was frightened. I felt silly about that because after all, I was growing up. I had too much and not enough information all at the same time.

A few years later, as an older teenager, I told someone I had held these fears. She explained that when she was a girl, every time a plane went over her house, she thought it was the communists. So, back in the 1950’s, in orchard country outside Melbourne, the 'reds under the bed' were scaring a teenage girl who later on, became my mum.

I told that story to my good friend and mentor yesterday. He had the same fears growing up that the commies were going to get him.

Maybe every generation of teenagers experience large world moments in ways that render feelings of powerlessness. If you are twenty-something, how does September 11 house itself in your memory?

What do we do?

If you are a parent of a teenager - tell your kids if and when you were frightened of stuff when you were growing up. What made you get over that? Tell them.

If you are a teenager reading this, ask your mum or dad if they were frightened by stuff when they were younger. And don't in any way feel silly about feeling scared - even show them this post if it can help get the conversation going. You know how I just said I had too much information when I was a kid... well, now you're a kid and you've got access to that thing they call the internet.

We are all watching it together. Sometimes we don't check with each other how it’s being taken in. Those little acts of concern, of love really, are the ways that we can deal with the terrible tragedy that is beaming into our homes. There are people doing amazing things to help each other in Japan... we can help further away by just checking in with each other - face to face.

Step away from the screens for a few moments everyone.

Talk. Listen.

In checking this out with the young bloke, it was evident he had consumed a fair number of media stories and angles on the topic. I explained that his mum thought he might be frightened, he said he was mostly just ‘sad’. He then went into a whole bunch of things he had been learning from reading about the Japan crisis. He had taken a lot in.

“I’m okay dad, I just hope that they get serious about different ways to make energy after this. But I don't think they will... that's why I said 'the world is ending'.”

The young bloke's assessment is direct - there is no way to pretty that up. However, I do appreciate he told me a bit of what was going on in his head and heart.

Feel free to write add your thoughts below.


Bill Jennings
http://www.time-space.com.au

6 comments:

  1. I was scared of a World War 3 whenever I saw images of conflict on TV. I've always thought my son was pretty oblivious to what was happening in the world around him but this post has reminded me of how terrified I was through lack of information and understanding so I'm going to talk and listen and see if he wants to share what's going on in his head.

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  2. I'm scared now. I'm no teenager. the images of those poor souls in Japan, it's cold, it's dark, there's no relief, there's nothing to see but what's around them - total destruction.
    I could weep and weep.
    madie

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  3. Thanks Jo and Madie. This morning, that friend-mentor sent me this link to a person's story on the ground in Japan.

    http://bit.ly/gGYF6i

    Hope it provides some comfort that the human spirit is strong. Cheers, Bill J

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  4. Hello Bill,

    Thanks for your story today because it is part of the whole thread of life we are enduring at the moment. The same comment as your son - regards 'the world is ending' was recorded by one of the Christchurch children on the wellness site 'whenmyhomeshook'. He said they were running in the playground at the time of the earthquake and one of the children called out - it's the end of the world. I thought for a moment from an adult perspective and then I responded after a reread to just as he meant. It was the fear of the unknown and also the the end of what they knew to be safe and comfortable.
    Having just seen the live stream of the National Service in Christchurch today and the footage of Northern Japan where it is snowing - we So need to listen to what our children are saying - as the remedy for the future really is in them, seemingly preordained so to speak, and often only unearthed as a consequence to our responses at these very times.

    I shall keep you on my favourites - thanks to Michael Grose <3 .... You have just reminded me that during my highschool years I discovered that Australia was 70% desert - so I wrote a project to replant the areas that had loss of vegetation. It is only now 30 years later that real efforts are being made towards achieving that. How different if my voice then, and your son's voice now in asking to find appropriate energy for our worlds - could be realised in a few years - not decades. Same goes for bully culture too.

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  5. Hi Bill,
    Thanks for your perspective. It is interesting to read about how the rest of the world is viewing this disaster. I'm on the ground in Tokyo. Our lives are not too far from normal right now. We've lived in Japan as missionaries for the last 10 years. From here I can say that there is a lot of hope in a situation that looks pretty terrible from the way the Western media are portraying it. Yes, there is despair and piles of pain, but there are also communities pulling together to do the best they can. There are also many opportunities to show love to those who've been too self-sufficient to receive it in the past.

    Regarding the nuclear situation, in the end many, many more have died from the tsnumani that have died from the nuclear situation. Nuclear energy is terribly emotive and the media have been screwing people's emotions with sensational, not-quite-all-the-fact reporting. Perhaps a little bit of research on the true nature of the radiation threat would help teenagers to understand the situation here and not be so afraid.

    Wendy

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  6. A very interesting post. I myself am a teenager. It is common for us to 'joke' about the end of the world, especially the 2012 theory. I would guess that your son may've just been joking to his friend about it. But, it is true though that I think sometimes the world will end soon with the significant number of disasters recently. I don't really live in fear though, or worry. I simply ponder the idea. On a slightly different topic, something I do seem to worry about is my future. I have political aspirations, and I fear sometimes that such a role in the future could be very difficult with the huge problems we as a people are going to face by the time I am that sort of age. I'm talking overpopulation, food shoratges, climate change, war, etc.
    Anyway, just a different viewpoint!

    --James A

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