This generation is like any other generation. We still feel the same wind, breathe the same air, get burnt by the same sun, and sleep under the same silver moon. We make the same choices, the same mistakes. Some kids grow up with a bad background. Some grow up with a good background. All of us are under the influences of our predecessors. Some kids will be Democrats. Some kids will be Republicans. Some will be radical. Some will be conservative. Some will be big business names. Some will be homeless. Some will live by the book. Some will live by the gun. Some will spend their lives in luxury. Some will spend their lives in prison. Some will seek the truth of their lives’ purpose. Some will run from it. But no matter what, it will survive. There are two sides to the story. The difference is in the influence of those who came before them, and the impact they make by their example. Will they be a negative or positive influence on their posterity? Like they say”The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Influence requires leadership. Leadership requires service. Service requires self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice requires conscious moral understanding. This moral maturity requires experience. The experience comes from influence, which comes from the examples of those who are influential. It’s a circular process. How good of a job has this generation’s fathers done?

This generation is the future, and someday it too shall become the past. But what it accomplishes in the height of its power won’t be much if the preceding generation does a bad job of ensuring that the ones coming after them are rooted in firm ethics and morals. If we lose that, we lose everythingthe collapse shall come from within our own ranks.

Where are we? We’re at a stalemate. The truth is that the previous generation hasn’t done the best it could have as a whole. This coming generation doesn’t develop by itself. It acts upon knowledgeknowledge brought about by the previous generation. So in order to combat the disease, change must happenby action, not words. Otherwise, we will cripple our own and ultimately lead to our demise.

What kind of influence are you going to be?