I am so old school, behind the times, out of the loop and still think of the nineteen seventies as being twenty years ago. And this isn't much of a stretch by any means. Just ask my husband and three kids (aka) professional eye rollers.
I've had to consciously wean myself off my iPad and smart(is it really)iPhone. I do totally ignore my phone when driving. If it's an emergency they will call me ten times in a row and then I will pull over and answer. One call or text can wait in my driving manual. I also hate driving in the rain, at night or in heavy traffic, or somewhere I'm not used to driving.
In other words I want to be a Driven Miss Daisy, and kinda feel like I at least deserve that by this point in life.
I don't think that's too much to ask. Do you?
Trust me, I know some Karens who would demand a whole lot more at my retired age of almost sixty five.
I first came across Jelly Roll after seeing a TikTok video of a middle school kid playing guitar and singing his song (Save Me) for a talent show at his school. When the entire gymnasium began to sing along with him it literally gave me chills. All these kids, sixth, seventh and eighth graders knew every word to this song and it was a telling sign to me.
Our kids today, and by that I mean even ones in their 20's 30's sometimes need help, validation and encouragement. It can be one thing or maybe even one song that flips the switch to make a difference. That thing which makes you know you can be better and more importantly makes you feel like you want to be better, and aren't alone in your journey or battle.
My goodness but did I stumble as a young adult in my twenties. Nothing too radical and consider myself extremely lucky, but had many friends who weren't as fortunate. Some I physically lost, some rebounded and some even bounced way ahead of me and left me in the dust...but good for them!!
Life isn't as simple as it was when I grew up in the sixties and seventies. Sure we had our problems. Segregation and the Vietnam war to name just two, both discussed in hushed tones and in private. I don't remember hearing about a lot of hard drug abuse, at least not in our small community located just fifteen minutes from the center of downtown Atlanta.
I can remember on Friday nights our parents would take us to eat at the Varsity for dinner. Huge deal for us as kids...and still a huge deal for me every time I pass through the ATL. After dinner sometimes he would drive us up Peachtree Street to look at the hippies sitting on the walls and along the curbs lining 14th Street. It was mesmerizing, fascinating and spooky all at the same time. It was just so out of context for me as a kid, growing up in a city which was a cross between Mayberry and Mayfield. Opie and Beaver...what a great combination for a most joyful upbringing. Then he would cruise back up Peachtree and stop by the Planter's Peanut Shop to get us a huge bag of warm roasted peanuts. He would jump out of the station wagon, my mother would scoot over and drive it around the block while he went inside to buy them and by the time she made to loop he was standing curbside with our big yummy warm bag of roasted peanuts. The smell was borderline heavenly, and yes they had a huge Mr. Peanut outside the shop wearing his trademark monocle.
That was about as crazy as my life got growing up.
I can't even begin to imagine the pressures kids today are growing up with and amongst. Social networking and the cyber world in general are, and often have been, death for many a bullied or tortured tween or teen. I can tell you with full confidence that it would have cut me to my soul when I was in high school. I didn't date a lot, I was never asked to prom or went to one. It stung a little more because my older sister was like the bomb dot com in high school, before that term ever came about. A majorette, voted Valentine Queen, Homecoming Queen, dated the star quarterback who also happened to be a Golden Gloves boxing champion by the age of seventeen and there I was in my bedroom listening to the Tapestry album by Carole King and (ironically) At Seventeen by Janis Ian.
My mother died very suddenly (less than 30 seconds) a couple of weeks after my seventeenth birthday. Two weeks before my senior year of high school started. It wasn't like I was a nobody. I was the Varsity cheerleading captain, in hindsight probably because no one else wanted it, but at least I had an embroidered CAPTAIN patch on the upper arm of my cheerleading sweater and jacket. This was 1977, which by todays standard means I never went viral or had thousands of followers...but at least I wasn't made fun of. (that I ever knew about) That was the barometer we cruelly used when I went to high school.
I was a bully in high school without realizing it. If someone wasn't 'popular' ...voted onto Valentine Court or Homecoming Court, or an amazing jock or an absolute beauty, we would make fun of them. I am ashamed of the person I was then.
The craziest thing is that I mainly did it to make really popular people laugh, making me think I was one of them...'the beautiful people' therefore clinging onto them by making them laugh at me making fun of the people we both laughed at.
Is that effed up or what?
While I have (almost) finally reached peace with myself after fifty years of trying to pay it forward, pay it back and just be there if someone needs something I can possibly help with, it still doesn't feel like enough.
Kids today have it a thousand times worse with all the cyber junk out there, social media and instant posting of literally every single thing they do every single second within the proximity of any celluar device.
Talk about spooky.
Between my own three kids, I bet they had no less than ten casualties of classmates, friends or acquaintances while in high school or shortly after. That's a whole lotta funerals for a teen ager to have to attend and a whole lot of broken hearted parents and relatives. And my youngest graduated high school in 2013 so no telling what the statistics are now.
I do feel a beginning shift. I feel like we are bringing more attention to mental health and hopefully removing the stigma of "Mental Illness" as a death sentence or something to be ashamed of.
This video of this middle school kid...my very first inkling of even hearing about Jelly Roll, touched me.
How awesome is this kid and how many people may he have helped get through their day who felt lost and unheard?
Kudos to Jelly Roll for reaching out to this young man after he saw this video. It takes a village.
And yes, Gage Jude won the talent show at his middle school.
Be a part of your own village or someone's that needs help too.
Till next time...COTTON
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