I heard it long ago: "Wisdom is something you can acquire two ways. You can gain it second hand from the mistakes of others; or you can go out and gain it first hand by making those same mistakes yourself." One is much less painful or costly than the other. Do we as people, or even a society, see where or when we are making mistakes, and have we acquired any kind of wisdom from it? I often wonder. This is made to stir some consideration about what we see happening in our society. I see it almost daily on my commute home from work through the lower income end of town; young girls, either pregnant or pushing strollers, and have to ask why. These girls should be in high school, or perhaps they just graduated; but why aren't they establishing themselves for the remainder of their lives. Why are these children having children? And by no means is this a problem only locked into the lower income parts of our community, it's happening everywhere. A trip to the local mall one day made that every so clear. There was a time, probably when I was growing up, you'd have been challenged to find enough teenage mothers in the entire county to clog the mall as much as it was that afternoon with teenage mothers -- on a school day nonetheless. Sure, I tell myself, this is a different day, some things are accepted that weren't when I was growing up; but that still doesn't mean it should be commonplace when the statistics show the negative impact which too often comes with children having children. I'm not hear to point blame, there is plenty to go around; and often it's first found by looking in a mirror. I just want to incite thought into what we're allowing to happen to children. They seem to go from their carefree years into adulthood without being given a real period to transition and grow into it; like we had. Perhaps some of this accounts for the drug and gang problems too. But what happened? Have parents failed to set expectations, ground rules, guidelines.... Have we become so obsessed with the pursuit of stuff to appease and entertain children that we forgot the most valuable thing they need; time and attention? One can say it's due to economics, parents works schedules..... But I came from a broken home, and my mother was only accessible for a short time of the day between working and sleeping to go to work; my father lost his job when the mills closed, and we weren't very well off when they were still open either. So, some excuses out the window, and on to the bigger problem: How do we restore that which has been lost? End of my little rant. Hope you all are enjoying the day.