Kids

My friend Michael has been undergoing an ordeal. You can read his blog entries at the link. We've become friends through JP's and through his blog posts. All I can do is give him my words and hope they help him, and keep him in my thoughts and prayers and feel incredibly proud of what he did. And also the Ruiz family are in my thoughts for their tragic loss. I can only imagine the grief they feel. As a parent it has to touch you.

As I read through Michael's entries I thought about this article that I had read last week. Apparently, according to the researchers, young people are smart enough to make the correct decision when dealing with a risky behavior, it's just a more complicated process for them. And they usually don't get what the consequences are until it's too late. This is probably the case here.

The article also reminded me of a Mark Twain quote: "When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. When I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." How true.

One thing I have decided from Michael's actions is to go for the CPR certification after the holidays. He made me realize this is an important thing for me to do as a citizen of the world.