Friday, October 16, 2009

emotional protection?

as we go through life, there are people there to tell us what we can and cannot do, based on our age. our parents say we aren't old enough to eat solids as a baby. the law says we aren't old enough to have sex at the age of fifteen. or drink and smoke before eighteen. friends may even express the opinion that you aren't old enough to start at family at the age of twenty. as we pass through these temporary obstacles, we realise the 'rules' were simply there for our physical well-being and to protect us. but what about our emotional well-being? who is protecting us from the unknown range of feelings? we have our family, our friends and members of parliament setting out minimum ages for physical activities, but who is setting out minimum ages, or even approximate ages for the breakthrough of all feelings and emotions?
when two parents allow their teenaged child to their first party, the poor kid is suffocated in stories. the parents talk of drinks being spiked, guys being rapists, and brawls ending in serious injuries. they do this because they have heard or seen these things happen, and they want us to be safe and protected, physically. why can't they have the same approach to our emotional state? it wouldn't be that hard to sit us down at certain ages, and prepare for both the good and bad feelings we may experience? no doubt, when our parents were our age, they found it hard to differentiate between lust and love. no doubt they suffered from a broken heart. no doubt they felt rejected by their friends. and no doubt they felt alone at times. i couldn't help but wonder, why can't parents use those previous experiences to hand out advice, just like they did with the parties? why can't they protect us from physical and emotional pain?
it isn't as if parents are solely to blame though. it's not as if we are educated at school about how to love someone, or how to push through a feeling of not belonging. it just made me think as to why everyone pushes to protect everyone else in the obvious way, yet not in the way that could possibly be the most harmful. has no one else realised that most those who take their own life, do it because of their emotional struggles, not so much their physical ones? has it not dawned on anyone else that emotional protection is the one thing that we lack as a society?

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