Excitement and the Future

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to do something worthwhile. I went to an elementary school and was able to help give a class to about 300 kindergarten and first graders on the importance of dental hygiene. We had a local dentist come and talk to them and towards the end we handed out toothbrush's and toothpaste. All of that was great, but what impacted me the most was there level of excitement. As you can tell from the picture above, we were mobbed. The kids swarmed us so much there was a moment or two I was a little afraid it might get out of control. I have never seen anyone so happy to see total strangers, much less Americans, much less military. Because of my past experience, I don't expect to be welcomed warmly into any situation. In Afghanistan, my experience was that people weren't so much happy to see you as much as they tolerated you being there, like a necessary evil. The kids in Afghanistan were nice enough, but you were never confident that they wouldn't pull out an AK-47 and start shooting. I was so impressed by the children at this elementary school because for the three plus hours that I was there, I didn't get asked for anything. They kept coming up and thanking me for being there. Not for anything in particular, not the toothbrush or the toothpaste, just showing up. "Thank you sir" and holding my hand to their forehead. (Which I learned later is a sign of gratitude) This experience got me thinking, these kids are the next generation, these are the decision makers of the future. These kids are going to be the adults that form peace treaties and wage wars. They are happy to see us now, but what happens if that changes? If we nurture the relationships that we have with the youth, then when they grow up the won't harbor hatred for us. This is a simple enough thing to say, and it applies directly here when I am dealing with counter-insurgency and terrorism, but how often in your own life have you disregarded the concerns or questions of your own children? I know that I am as guilty as anyone. It is all too easy to get caught up in our everyday life and neglect their concerns. Deeming them unimportant. We all want our sons and daughters to grow and be successful, but do we treat them like we expect that. If you knew your child was going to grow up and be the President of the United States, would you raise him differently? I know I would and I plan to start. Now by no means am I saying that raising kids is easy, it is not. What I am saying is that we, as parents, should be willing to put in the work to properly raise our children, while understanding that sometimes all they want from us, is to just show up.