What I Know Now

Working at a college around a bunch of teens and twenty-somethings can make you feel old. It can also make you ask some questions. "How can anyone wear flip-flops in December?" is one. "Do they actually call the stuff they listen to music?" is another. And then there is the question I ask most myself most often:n n"Was I really that stupid when I was their age?"n nThe answer, of course, is yes. Absolutely.n nI have the proof to back that claim, too. When I was twenty, I believed:n nThat life is simple.n nThat the future is set in stone.n nThat love is all you need.n nThat there is good and there is bad and there is nothing else.n nThat faith will make everything better.n nThat the young had more to offer than the old.n nThat the new held more promise than the tried and true.n nFifteen years have passed since then. Fifteen very long, very frantic, and at times very painful years. Whichever of the above beliefs were not proven ill-conceived through marriage and children have certainly been proven so through experience. I know better now. Much, much better.n nFor instance.n nI know that life is not simple. It is hard and scary and tiresome, but it is not simple. If you think it is, then you're not really living it.n nI know that the future may well be set in God's eyes, but it certainly isn't in ours. What happens tomorrow is most often a direct result of what we do today, which is most often a direct result of what we did yesterday. The choices we make this day, this second, reach farther and deeper than we can possibly realize. Every moment is a defining moment. Every moment is the moment of truth.n nI know that love is not all you need. I know that without things such as grace and forgiveness and effort love crumbles upon itself. Love is not the all-powerful cure that poets and dreamers have crafted it to be. It must be nurtured and fed and tended to. Love is not a firm rock that can withstand anything. It is a delicate rose that can wither without attention.n nI know that there is good and there is bad. But I also know there is more, and I need to look no further than my own heart for proof. For there resides the good man I could be, the flawed man I am, and the man who is both and must choose daily which he will become.n nI know that faith alone is feeble, that only when it is polished with action does it truly shine. Too many of us pray for things to get better but do nothing to make them so. God may move mountains, but that's because mountains can't move themselves.n nI know that the vigor and strength of youth may power society, but it's experience that drives it. Life has rules, and unfortunately those are not given all at once, but bit by bit as you go. That's why parents and grandparents are so important. They've been there. And because they have, they know a lot more than you do. Time changes. The times do not.n nAnd lastly, I know the new may be exciting, may be revolutionary, and may even be promising, but I also know they may not be that way for long. The very things that have sustained us in the past are the things that guarantee us a bright future, things like the importance of family and God, things like the virtues of kindness and loyalty and forgiveness. Such things are woven into us. They are the foundation of who we are and who we will become.n nThat's what I know now. Will those beliefs change? Maybe. Check back in twenty years and I'll let you know. n