Youth, here and there

The New York Times has some really great audio/visual pieces, and I was especially struck by this one that I found this morning, about a platoon in Afghanistan. Warning: this story contains some of the stark realities of war.

War has been a constant background for most of my adult life...can you believe that? I continue to seriously question the motives of those who started these wars...the people who start wars are never the ones who actually have to fight in them. But the thing that really gets me is that so many of the people who serve are so very young. My undergrad tutors were a constant source of bewilderment and frustration for me this semester (did I really act like that when I was 20 years old?), but they also often amazed me with their insights and observations. Some of the soldiers portrayed in the NYT piece are just as young, and armed with guns instead of books, charged with making split-second decisions as they serve as front-line ambassadors of our country. I always told my tutors that it would be really hard for them to mess up one of their kids. Don't be afraid to take risks, I said. That's not exactly the case for a 20 year old soldier pinned down in a river bank in rural Afghanistan.

People who work with youth (up to age 35 in the organization where my mother works!) talk about "extended adolescence" and I myself am a vocal proponent of students taking a few years to work or volunteer with Americorps before starting college because I think they aren't mature enough for it at age 17. But really, when we look around, we entrust youth with our most precious tasks...caring for our children (I was watching infants when I was 14 years old), fighting our wars, responsible for our health and safety (who cooks your food and is responsible for sanitizing your dishes when you eat out?).

All this philosophizing about youth is probably a sign that my youth is slipping away, which it may well be. I'll be 30 in just about one month.