This is more BS...skip if you choose! Someday, I may learn how to be articulate!... and say what I'm thinking and feeling BRIEFLY and CONCISELY. (So, I apologize for not being there yet.) I've been reading the "Post Colorado" threads with interest as they have been helping me more clearly define for myself, what it is that I think,..about pre-teens, and teenagers, increase in violence etc. Prior to my current profession, I worked intensely with "run-away" teens...at the time known as "street kids". "Running" away from their families, from foster homes, or from institutions in which they had been placed. At the time I was too busy dealing with crises to be reflective, (and too young myself,) but because I wear my "heart on my sleeve" and often got lucky to be in the right places at the right times, I was able to break through some tough bravado exteriors and discover scared, hurting, SENSITIVE, artistic human beings, who had been ostracised/ridiculed/violated.. by family, at schools, whereever.. and they had quickly learned negative ways to protect their basic sensitive,natures. Some of these kids were from "decent, well-respected" homes with "good" parents. I remember thinking at the time, that the poverty of the spirits I was seeing, was worse than the worst of the financial poverty I was working with. Even though the outside influences on these young souls has dramatically changed...become much more violent, videogames, guns readily available...etc. I don't believe the basic instincts of a child's quest for internal identity (and how they fit into the "world" around them) has. I don't know what the answer is, except that there is an age, when we make decisions about what the world around us is....and how best to survive in it. I think the decision may be as simple as, either we decide, at that age,to arm ourselves for defense to the hurt(which includes initiating violence/aggression)...or to remain open, with ALL its risks. I do know that boredom is an enemy, and after dealing with the "hurts" and getting the tears out, it was amazing to me to see what could happen, when time was taken to discover a child's passion and find a positive outlet for its development and exploration. (For kids who had already heard all the words and were too defensive to listen any more, I used music or animals as tools to break through those cold exteriors.) I WISH I knew what it was/is I'm trying to express....but something like....even though the exterior influences have changed....the internal spirit of a human being has not...regardless of which culture/age it finds itself in.

As if I haven't said enough already.....twice as a "mature" adult, I've cried openly at receiving public thank-you's for my work...and even though its more accepted for a woman to cry, I have carried my feelings of embarassment since. After reading the last few posts here, I think I'm proud that I cried in public!!!