Mistuned Chords

Of all the texts that crossed me last month, I think that it was a conversation between a teacher and a student that caught my special attention. It goes like this: One day, a teacher asked his student, “Johny, what will you do after growing up?” Johny, “Facebooking.” Teacher, “No, I mean what will you become?” Johny, “Admin of facebook pages.” Teacher, “Omg! I mean what will you achieve in your life?” Johny, “Facebook Admin Rights.” Teacher, “Idiot! I mean what will you do for your parents?” Johny, “I create a page for them on facebooK.” Teacher, “Stupid! What do your parents want from you?” Johny, “My facebook  password!” 

Johny, no doubt, represents the 3rd generation. I don’t know if the present system of education has gone terribly wrong? We have with us a generation which thinks that it is the brightest, fittest and strongest. I remember the story of a sample bright and wise young man. Once, a Mom visited her son, who lived with a girl roommate. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty his roommate was. Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between him and his roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom's thoughts, his son volunteered, “I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, we are just roommates." About a week later, they found that a silver plate is missing. He sat down and wrote to his mother regarding this. Several days later, he received an email from his Mother which read: Dear Son: I'm not saying that you ‘do' sleep with your roommate, and I'm not saying that you ‘do not' sleep with her. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping on her own bed, she would have found the silver plate by now, under her pillow.

Today's reality has become: big houses but small families, more degrees but less common sense, advanced medicine but poor health, high income but less peace of mind, good knowledge but less wisdom, lots of friends on networks but no true love, lots of humans but less humanity, very precise time keeping machines but no time. Sometimes, I myself doubt if the world as a whole has gone mad. 

All of us are destine to grow into a zone where, kidnappers may not have any interest in us, things we buy will never wear out, we no longer think of speed limits as a challenge, our joints have turned more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service, our secrets are safe with our friends because they can't remember them either. It is said that at the root of every gray hair, there is a dead brain cell. At the root of all turmoil we face, there is a mistuned 3rd generation guy. Using the little black hairs left, think of a generation that follows the examples we set.

Joseph Mattappally