My Two Cents Worth - 6

By Dale Moore

     The young woman bore an emaciated look.  There was no hint of a smile on her face.  Her eyes had the vacant look of someone who has already chosen to check out of life.  She was dressed in black jeans and a black tee shirt emblazoned with the words, “The World’s Greatest Nobody.  The message and her look stung me like an open hand across my face.  I wondered what had transpired in such a young life to bring her to this horrid conclusion. 

     I have met her before!  Her name was Grace, or Rosie, or…  well, any number of students I have had in my classroom or have counseled with over the past 26 years.  Some came from broken and/or poverty-ridden homes.  Others came from elegant homes with a Mercedes and/or a BMW in the garage.  Some lived with drunken uneducated parents, some with parents who held a PhD in child development.  Some were raised in the local bar, some in the local church, and some in both.  Some have used drugs, illegal and/or legal. Some have been physically and sexually abused.  All have been emotionally abused.  But wherever they came from, they have lived a life that was ignored by the most important people in that life.  In most cases those people did not intend to hurt the child.  Many would proclaim, “We gave that child everything.” and the truth is some did give the child everything they knew to give.  They gave all the “things” they understood should be given to a child, the things each of them they had been given as a child.  The common element they did not know to give was listening. There is an old adage that children should be seen and not heard.  WRONG!  Children need to be heard.  They learn to speak with respect when they are listened to with respect.  Yes, the one thing these children needed was, an ear.  

       If ever there was an obscene tee shirt, it was the one I saw this morning.  No child should feel the need to say, be allowed to say, “I am the worlds greatest nobody!’  A child should understand, if s/he understands nothing else, that they are somebody, somebody with worth, somebody who is heard, somebody who is loved.  If we, the adults in their life, cannot tell them that, we should not expect them to listen to anything else we say, for in truth, we have nothing worthwhile to say.

     And that is my two cents worth
ArtistMarket.com