Today's topic is inspired by my boyfriend's older son, a typical 14-year-old. There was a bit of frustration in the house this morning as we witnessed yet another time that he didn't bother to shut out the kitchen lights before leaving for school. And yet he has been told many times. I got to thinking, however, about how he processes the information we pass on about saving money on the electric bill and maybe doing our small part to save the environment. It's as if he doesn't process it at all. As if it's junk email that gets deleted before you even scan the contents... because of its title or sender, you KNOW it doesn't need to take any of your attention.
So, if turning out lights is junk mail to him, what does that mean? Given that this is a POSITIVE energy blog, I tried to think of a positive interpretation (rather than just sigh and try harder tomorrow). I got to thinking that maybe he's simply not made to pay attention to these small details in life. Maybe he's made for bigger stuff. There are many adults who pay absolutely no attention to detail, but achieve great things in life. I suspect Albert Einstein didn't bother to turn out the lights when he left a room. Neither did Leonardo or Michaelangelo (of course, they would have simply let their candles burn out). I bet Bill Gates doesn't think much about lights in a room, and while Warren Buffet is probably a fanatic for turning out lights, I suspect it's motivated much more by his frugal nature than actual attention to this small detail. All of these people have "people" who turn out lights for them. So maybe we need to focus on making sure that our 14-year-old plans to surround himself with people who will pay attention to these "insignificant" details for him and he'll be just fine.
What is the real point of this blog? It's that we often take things at face value and interpret them in our typical pessimistic or negative manner. It would be really easy to say that this 14-year-old is lazy...or doesn't listen to his father...or doesn't care about his impact on the rest of the family. What is more difficult is imagining something positive about this: maybe he IS the next Einstein? Maybe his brain is made for bigger stuff? If that's the case, we'd better stop distracting his genius by telling him to turn out the lights (which he will never do anyways) and start helping him fill his brain with ideas and dreams and confidence. Maybe our energy will be much more effective that way.
Oh, and I guess I'll just have to get used to shutting out the physical lights so that I can help turn on internal lights.
Have a great day!
