One struggles with the concept of sloth. We enjoy a leisurely weekend on the sofa pretending to “catch-up” on vital recorded sit-coms, all-the-while sleeping soundly as our families cooperate with the fiction. However, on Monday morning, we’re off again to confront the daily battles and, as some might say, silent desperation, of the working, first-world human. Yet, one witnesses our progeny, arguably our closest genetic match, and we judge. Yes, we judge with reckless abandon. How dare they sleep until noon? How dare they eat seemingly endless calories without gaining the telltale weight that befalls those of us who have been blessed by “the good life”?
But, now is their time. The sleep is precipitated by unregulated growth and surging hormones. While quarterly calculus finals amuse us compared to mortgage payments and angry in-laws, the stress of youth in present times is real and measurable. Without regard to our own challenges – often addressed as the two-way walk, uphill to school and back – it is true to acknowledge that the modern world has delivered “modern” problems to even the youngest amongst our ranks.
But, if present day media has anything to say about it, humanity is doomed. The youth in our midst lack both the ability and the desire to carry their own weight. Could it be true? Are we nearing the end of our reign as the dominant species? Yet, Roy and Katie Appleget from Burlington, Iowa, lived in a tent at a local campground for months on end accumulating the down payment for their first home. While many took handouts, these working-class heroes decided to figure it out on their own. Does the will to succeed exceed our thirst for sloth; or is it simply that Roy and Katie have missed the virtue of Ferragamo or the latest iWhatever?