Bring Back The Days of Yea and Nay?

by Amber Rogers

The last couple of decades has brought before us an inordinate amount of news articles and public documentation Illuminating the horrors of perpetrators caught on video ( recording devices brought to you by Teddy Ruxpin) abusing our children. From child abuse, shows highlighted on "Dateline" to the hidden "nanny cameras" exposing what really happens when we leave our children with babysitters- we are bombarded with the reality of the sick individuals around us! The images, of these sex-traffickers, rapists, and all-around miscreants seem to now own our streets. Their behavior unbelievably being perpetrated right under our noses.

When I use to think back wistfully upon "the Days of Yea and Nay," my heart would automatically be consumed by nostalgic images of "utopia." Children playing dodgeball in the streets and alleys, unaccosted; relishing their game of Tag. Their screams of delight reverberating throughout the neighborhood! Older kids, assembled themselves along with their younger counterparts, acting as both referees and leaders in this ongoing game of their delight. They made sure that even the youngest amongst them got a fair turn and they enjoyed every bounce. The only care they had on those days was that they might get caught by the "streetlights." The less adventurous amoungst them, choosing to "hop-scotch" their day away, while other little girls chose to be like "mommy," in the privacy of their playrooms, and fine-tuned their skills on their Easy-Bake Ovens! Yep, the good ole days. Or were they? Hindsight will always be 20/20 and what is past will always seem to leave us longing, but my question being posed is simply... "what happened to us and was it really better?" I have been guilty of being caught fawning over the good old days; specifically, one day when I got scolded by Ms. Johnson on the way home from school for stepping on her grass and trying to pull up her flowers. By the time I reached my own front door, my high crimes and misdemeanors had gone before me and I was face to face again with my infractions and the belt. That was the "village" Way. Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers alike repeat this adage today to their own children in order to remind them of a better day and to "poo-poo" them regarding the horrific job that they are doing in raising this new generation. When we take a look around and see our country going to hell-in-a-handbasket, along with this current wave of ratchetness, lawlessness, and self-consumption permeating our lives, the natural thing to do is to reach back for a seemingly more comprehensible time and try to draw in the gaps of how we got to this place. The Millennials and most of the Generation X-ers have made the poignant decision to not accept or tolerate the "Baby Boomer's" once acclaimed "village mentality." The dirt, dust, manure, and scandal that has seeped from under our village rugs have sent this latter Generation off on their own trail of discovery. The result is that they have decided to go it alone and as individuals. Today, for the most part, when a parent is called in to address an educator's problem with their child that teacher is met with hostility and the child is coddled. (Promptly after the teacher is cursed out) The psychology of distrust and protection for one's own has replaced the theology of "it takes a village to raise a child" and constructive criticism is now met with resistance. The sins of the fathers have told off on his children. They see us as broken and our hidden atrocities are their evidence. Our childhood issues have left us depressed, broken, and ineffectual. That evidence is now in our doctor's offices, upon the psychiatrist's couches, and in our many anti-anxiety medications which we gobbled down in search of relief. They have watched our hypocrisy and want no part of it. The sick fathers, uncles, aunties, and cousins, that we glorified as "villagers" they now recognize as culprits and cohorts in the fabric of our life's tragedies. As we go in and out of recovery, and therapy, fighting our hidden addictions and contritions; realizing our own abuses at the hands of our trusted priests, pastors, teachers, and coaches, (I.e. the village) they have rejected our history.

while on Facebook some time ago, I watched in horror as a young mother practiced her twerking moves in front of her two-year-old son. She stretched and popped her legs and her butt as far and wide apart as she could all while her young son watched intuitively. The ratchetness of her gyrations and the apparent smell that emitted from between her legs was the targeted punchline when the youngster finally stated "mama yo booty stank!" The young mother laughed it off and we all shook our heads, in dismay. In the comment section, she went on to tell us that she would raise her child as she saw best and that we should mind our own business! Long gone for some are the antiquated classes of etiquette or the grace and finery of learning the submission of ballroom dancing. Now enter the days of the dancing dolls and the competition of who can dance the raunchiest, while swinging the longest hair weave, all while wearing the shortest and most revealing outfits.

Yes, there is a great divide between the generation’s ideas of parenting, protecting, and providing. No one generation has all the answers but the word of God is tried-and-true. In Order to get this generation back on track its only ammunition is to make sure that the track is unencumbered and is in direct line with His truth and His promises. Our children are falling through the cracks, our homes are broken, our churches are ineffectual, and we are individually trying to do it on our own. Millennials, "It is a beautiful thing to spread your wings and aim high, but it is a wise man who utilizes his net." And if you look really close you will find that someplace between Yea, Nay, and here, that safety net that you so diligently search for can be found! It wont be found in us, but it will be found in Him. “Because the safest place in the whole wide world truly is in the will of God.”

“Hind-Sight Has 20/20”