Everyone needs a purpose in their lives. Men and women both do in order to feel some sort of happiness and develop an interest in spreading their wings and leaving home. Circumstances for young people are different from what they used to be. Today it is difficult for anyone to establish a purpose and a pursuit for their lives because we frankly just have too many choices. Couple this with the ease of learning anything we are curious about by watching a video and taking no action you have the phenomenon of a dying interest in discovery for one’s self.
A purpose provides people with a path to happiness. I know because it is true for
myself but as an illustration let me tell a story about a little girl who surprised me with her level of happiness.
Last week I was headed into the grocery store when I saw something that kind of upset me. There was a very obese woman struggling to get out of a grocery store scooter and get into the driver’s seat of an old beat up car in the handicapped parking area. The thing that caught my attention was the 10 year old little girl who was trying to help her. Once the woman was no longer on the scooter the little girl put the groceries out of the scooter in the back seat. In my head I was feeling really bad for this little girl who I am guessing was the woman’s daughter. I was thinking how it was sad that this should be her life. Dealing with this very unhealthy mom and I was imagining she really just was raising herself because mom did not seem capable of much of anything.
I entered the grocery store and stood inside watching, as the little girl closed the car door and drove the scooter back inside. She backed it into the spot where it was supposed to go and I stood there and watched as she plugged it in then headed back out the door. As she was leaving she noticed I was watching her and she smiled at me and said hi. Then she happily trotted out the door, got into the back seat and sat directly behind the obese woman and buckled her seat belt. The obese woman was now smoking a cigarette and doing something with her phone (probably swiping on a dating app, lol). The little girl just sat there and patiently waited. At this point I moved on. But I was struck by what I had seen. The little girl who I was feeling sad for seemed remarkably happy.
Where I was feeling sad for the little girl who had to do everything for mom, the little girl herself was remarkably happy. Perhaps her happiness stemmed from having a purpose of helping her mom who clearly was incapable of helping herself.
I compared this little girl to so many other kids I have known and their parents. The parents are always worried trying to make their precious child’s life easy and show their kid how much they care. Oddly this seems to create a child who grows up and has a difficult time finding the motivation to find a purpose. Couple that with the ease of satisfying any curiosity by a quick search online and you have a recipe for a kid who grows up and has any need to move out of the house.
They can be motivated by their needs to find an intimate partner but that also has its own difficulties.
