A beautiful springtime trillium (Provided photo — Diane Chase)

Last week I wrote about Earth Day and looking for various options to ease our dependency on plastics. I appreciate all the people that reached out to share information. I believe that is how conversations need to be, courteous and helpful. I am grateful for the feedback. We appreciate thanks for picking up garbage along the roadside.

It is an interesting divide when so many people feel the need to compliment our youth. One issue continues to bother me. People were so grateful that children went out into the streets to help clean up litter. Bear with me. I’m grateful. I really am. What bothers me isn’t the fact that adults are thanking children but that they are so intent in reaffirming that there is “some good in the youth of today.”

I understand that all the adults always did the right thing. We never got in trouble. We minded our parents. We helped out without being told. We were saints. It’s really tough to live up to that type of standard. (It also didn’t happen.) Perhaps while getting older, we’ve also gotten forgetful.

This idea circles back to the activity of picking up roadside trash. Children can’t drive. I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back. Children can’t drive. Roadside trash is put there by people with a driver’s license. Some people may argue children are licensed at 17 to drive. By that time, they have seen their parents toss things out of car windows. They have witnessed adults littering. Children aren’t fighting their parents’ decisions to choose the ground over the bin. They see their parents do it.

I feel the conversation may need to be turned around. When we see children cleaning up after adults, perhaps we need to put our hope into adults. I have complete faith in our youth. It is the adults that need some fine-tuning. If we can’t remember how we were as children, how can we understand the youth today? When we only remember how perfect we were growing up, which didn’t happen, how do we acknowledge our own need to continue to grow? Instead of pinning all our dreams on the youth, I will put my optimism into the adults. The children have this one down. I really hope adults start living up to their potential.