Tag Archives: youth

Two Tales of Christmas Spirit

by Woody

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Two Tales of

Christmas Spirit

A song in the movie The Grinch asks, “Where are you, Christmas? Why can’t I find you?”

Sometimes it shows up where you least expect it as I witnessed just the other day. A homeless man, bearded and bedraggled and sadly appearing to be in mental disarray as well, was yelling angrily at every passerby who came with 20 yards of him near a walkway at a local park.

Naturally, people began keeping their distance. And then came an exception. A teenage boy on a bike approached the man, not too close, but near enough to get barked at fiercely before riding away.

A good while later, maybe half an hour, the teen returned. He had pedaled some four miles, roundtrip, to McDonald’s to buy a gift meal for the distressed man.

The scene, which I watched unfold from afar, brightened my day and Holiday Season as I hope it does yours. It also brought to mind another Christmastime encounter I witnessed a number of years ago that I still share whenever someone complains about today’s youth.

It was past 1 o’clock in the morning when I stopped at a 24-hour Ventura doughnut shop on my way home from a Lakers game. The parking lot was a ghost town except for four shadowy figures loitering on the sidewalk near the shop’s entrance.

As I approached I could see there were three boys and girl, all teens, all with numerous tattoos and piercings. I stereotypically judged these books by their covers, especially as they stood hauntingly in a semicircle around an elderly man, cold and coatless and barefoot, and seated on the sidewalk.

I went inside to get a blueberry muffin, all the while keeping a worried eye on the group outside. Nothing seemed to be happening until…

… I walked back outside. Then, as ominously as pirates ordering a prisoner to walk the plank at gunpoint, I heard the troublesome-looking teens tell the old man to stand up and walk.

“Uh-oh!” I thought.

My next thought was that I had misjudged these four buccaneers, and greatly so.

“How do those feel?” one of the boys asked. “Do they fit?”

The homeless man took a few measured steps, stopped, looked at his feet, made an about-face and returned to the quartet.

“These ones fit real good,” the cold man answered, flashing a smile that warmed the winter night.

The teens, in unison, smiled back.

“Keep them. They’re yours,” the same boy as before replied. “I want you to have them.”

Glancing down I saw the speaking teen was now barefoot. He had given the man in need his expensive skateboarding sneakers and socks as well.

The other two boys sat on their skateboards, retying their shoes. It seems that they, too, had let the man try on their sneakers to find which pair best fit him. The girl, meanwhile, gave her hooded sweatshirt to the cold man.

Halfway to my car I made a U-turn and went back inside the shop and picked out an assortment of a dozen doughnuts while sharing what I had just witnessed outside. Time and again, the Christmas spirit is more contagious than coronavirus and this was such a time. The woman worker not only wouldn’t let me pay for the doughnuts, she added a free jumbo coffee for the cold man.

“These are from the lady inside,” I said, delivering the treats. “Have a nice night.”

The man with new shoes and a sweatshirt grinned appreciatively.

“You have a nice night, too,” one of the teens replied.

I already had.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

 

Youth Serves Notice as Leaders

by Woody

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Plea For The Greatest Generation 2.0

Dear Youth,

I nearly addressed you “Dear Students” but that seems too limiting – and there is to be no limiting you, as you showed the world earlier this week.

Even the nametag “Youth” seems too small, ignoble even, for you proved yourselves quite noble by marching out of your high school classrooms nationwide in protest of gun violence as well as in solemn remembrance of the 17 students and staff members slain a month ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

I also considered beginning “Dear Future Leaders” but this, too, fell short because your leadership does not lie ahead – it is needed now. On Wednesday morning, you delivered.

And that is the reason for this brief note. One day is, to flip one of your marching messages upon its ear, not #Enough. Our nation needs more of your leadership daily here on out.1walkout

Nay, the world needs your leadership. When I say “world” I mean it literally, as in the globe, as in Earth. Real and deadly as gun violence is, a greater enemy requiring your focus and fight is climate change.

A madman – or mad boy, as is often the case – with a rapid-fire firearm can wipe out a classroom of kids in mere moments or kill dozens in a movie theater or church or concert venue. Climate change, however, has the potential to wash away entire cities; destroy crops on scales so grand as to cause famine; even, and surely, to cause wars.

The people who tell you climate change is a “hoax” are the same who derisively call you “kids” and scornfully say you are too young and naïve to be telling your adult leaders “Enough is enough” and “No more” while demanding stricter gun legislation to make you safer at school.

In other words, these naysayers of youth are older people who will not be affected by the climate change monster when it gains more momentum and power if nothing is done soon – now! – to slow or even shackle it.

Youth, your grandparents and great-grandparents have been called “The Greatest Generation” for bravely defeating the Nazis in World War II. Their heroism was indeed colossal, but no less heroic measures are demanded of you now. If you can rid your schools – and churches, theaters, arenas – of gun violence, you will in turn be a truly great generation.

And if you can halt the rising tide on climate change, I dare say you will be The Greatest Generation 2.0.

I, for one, believe you are tall to the task. You have found your voices; now you must raise them, higher and louder and tirelessly. You must continue to march, not just on your campuses and in the streets, but to the voting booths.

Yes, most importantly, even more than with speeches and Tweets and postings on Instgram and Facebook, you must make your voices heard at the ballot box.

To those who tell you to pipe down because you are just kids, keep in mind that some of our Founding Fathers were not much older than you. James Monroe was only 18 in 1776 while Alexander Hamilton but 19. Nathan Hale was 21 and James Madison just 25. Being a leader and world-changer has no minimum age requirement.

Indeed, few forces are more powerful than youth armed with courage and conviction. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “When duty whispers low, ‘Thou must,’ The youth whisper, ‘I can.’ ”

Emerson was wrong, slightly. Dear Youth, Thou must not whisper your reply, you must bellow!

Sincerely with hope and confidence in you,

Woody

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden & Me Kickstarter Front PhotoCheck out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …