Imagine you want to plant some flowers in your garden. You collect the seeds and then go out and sow them. But you are distracted, you are not focusing, therefore only a few fall on the proper soil. Some end up in a thorny bush, others too near the pavement, a few fall too far. When, after some time, you go and check on the progress, what do you expect to find? Do you think that “all” the seeds have turned into flowers? Well, no, they haven’t. Not “all” of them: The ones near the pavement at first sprouted but then they dried out for lack of strong roots. The seeds that had fallen in the bush were chocked by the thorns and those thrown too far had been eaten by the birds. Only the few that had fallen on the suitable soil had bloomed into beautiful flowers.
This metaphor should make you think about the dangers hidden in the “modern” way our society is proceeding. A parent or a teacher speaks to the youngsters and tries to warn them about the many dangers they are going to face or are already facing: Drugs, the mirage of easy money, the chimera of becoming rich and famous, extreme “fun,” daring experiences… All things our youths see and hear about all the time through the images they are presented with by the TV, movies, magazines, the Internet. They are mainly nourished with pictures of excessive (often ill-earned) wealth, wild entertainment, violent actions in order to reach a goal, etc. Although the “bad guy” seems to be usually punished at the end, what remains engraved in the young mind is not the arrest and conviction or the repentance of the culprit, but rather the vision of luxurious places, of money easily obtained, of an artificial paradise that could never exist in reality. Young people sometime listen to parents and teachers, but only because they cannot avoid it. How many do actually understand how real the danger is? Some do but, unfortunately, many do not.
There are too many things ready to attract their attention and charm their minds: Fashions, opinions, current trends, reality shows, music videos, ads… It is a fascinating world gaping through luring images that capture the imagination, that shout loudly, that encourage to seek, to take, to try, to prevaricate, to attack in order to obtain what one wants. Aggressiveness and competition seem to have become the symbols of success. Those who stay behind are “losers.” This is the new creed. If you don’t show how strong and ruthless you are and reach your goal, i.e. grasp, even by force, what you believe to be your right, you fall into the mass of common, insignificant individuals who have no weight whatsoever in modern society. What is important is “to win,” to show that you are stronger and more powerful than others.
Therefore, how many will accept the words of wisdom, the messages that good teachers, caring parents, dedicated preachers, motivated writers, etc. try to convey? Not only young people seem to be deaf to such messages, though. Also adults, maybe even you, tend to ignore or forget. Fruitful words and ideas are like the seeds planted in the soil. What kind of “soil” are you? And, most of all, what kind of “seed” are you willing to let grow? Be aware that all words yield “results,” both the good and the bad ones. Therefore, as the soil can be more or less receptive, so can words be beneficial or dangerous. Seeds are the words you hear as well as the pictures, the songs, the video-clips, the films, the press, the commercials that fill the eyes and the ears of our society; in a nutshell, all the trends that young and not so young people listen to and follow nowadays. Ask yourself what are the “seeds” that inspire your behavior throughout the day, at home, at work, at school, in your relationships with your fellow human beings and, most of all, with your own “self.” When you find out, you might need to make some “adjustments.”
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