The Inspiration of Youth

What is required for the inspiration of youth? Today more than ever, the youth seem lost in a crisis of meaning. They waste away in an ocean of never ending social media scrolling. They listen to music that, compared with the peace and of Woodstock 1969, sounds full of pain and depression. More of them are on psych meds than ever before.

This can’t go on. That’s why I’d like to discuss a few principles I’ve discovered through my work as a teacher and homeschooler. To begin with, here is a poem we are currently working on in our weekly Live Teen Empowerment Class (which runs on open enrollment, just as an aside):

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-E.E. Cummings

(Poem originally published in Xaipe New York: Oxford University Press, 1950). We recite this as part of our class at the beginning of the session. We do it artistically forming each sound in each word according to the images we wish to render for the listener. Why might a poem like this be relevant to our question?

The Inspiration of the Feeling Life of Youth

Between the ages of 12 and 14, something new is born in youth. If they’re healthier, they’ll spend more time in their room playing an instrument, building complex architectural structures out of blocks, or reading. If they’re less healthy, that time will be spent on social media as the precious hours of their lives waste away in goal-less stimulation.

Either way, these scenarios provide a clue as to their development. An inner life of feeling is unfolding like never before. It’s interesting to them. They want to explore it, and that’s why they spend so much more time in their room.

But, this rich new inner life can go two ways: inspiration or depression. Which turn it takes can depend, at least partially, on what we have filled it with as they’ve grown up and what we continue filling it with at this time. Thus, to keep these tender young souls on the right path, they need stimuli which touched their feeling life positively. Like, the EE. Cummings poem above.

Focusing On the Positive More Than the Negative

I used to read an inspiration regularly that said, “Focus more on what you want than what you don’t want.” That really impacted me, and continues to do so to this day. Do you have a youth or teen with a tendency to spew biting sarcasm? Disrespect is a common theme of this age, but it arises out of their own insecurity.

That’s why it can be helpful for them to be part of a group with a positive theme, like a Teen Empowerment Class or a youth group. Being around peers and adult guides for a positive purpose can be tremendously strengthening for them at this age, and it can make all the difference between keeping their heads above water and sinking.

Adult Guides Beyond the Nuclear Family

Any parent with a middle schooler or above knows a secret others outside of this category do not. Something changes when youth hit that age. To what can we compare it? Perhaps it is like the Renaissance when new capacities and interests come online like never before. Personally, I started taking flight lessons at age 13. It’s that sort of thing. Concurrently, the Renaissance brought a tremendous rebellion against the age-old church authorities. Now you know where I’m going with this.

My godson is 14. I see him a lot, and it often happens that he comes to me with an issue. I give him my opinion, it’s basically the same thing his parents already said, and now he believes it. This experience is all-too-common in youth. Why do they rebel against their parents? They rebel because they have to, my dear, dear friends. The youth have to rebel in order to form a true and proper self.

Thus, it can be extraordinarily strengthening to find a trusted adult outside the nuclear family for them to develop a relationship with. This person represents the wider world. Thus, though they may tell the youth the same things their parents say, having that feedback echoed makes it more believable. They then think to themselves, “Oh, this is also true beyond the cocoon of my early childhood.”

Help is Here

We want our youth healthy and full of gratitude. We want them celebrating, “the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and…everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.” To that end, while I don’t often add plugs of shameless self-promotion in my blog posts, I’m going to here because I see magic happening in our work with youth and teens. Our Teen Empowerment Class meets every week on Tuesdays at 11:30am eastern time with youth from California to Ireland. We sing together, meditate, checkin, do visioning boards, address topics that concern them, and do a book study together. For more information, click here.