“It’s not straight-forward”, “It’s complicated” “You don’t understand”
Some of the modern plaintive of modern youth from modern life. Yet a generation ago, the same refrain could be heard and so too for the generation before that; simply put – life isn’t straight-forward and life is complicated. However, when it comes to understanding, there is always a path to understanding. Understanding is wholly manageable and achievable and is the backbone of our work at Shekinah.
We live in a very PC society where we strive to become all-inclusive, all-equal and all-accepting. Yet, the irony is that society has never been more judgemental. We encourage our youth to talk, to be transparent, to be true themselves but if it was easy, we wouldn’t hear that it’s hard. At Shekinah we train to understand, to connect and to reach past the challenges that threaten the transparency and truth of our youth.
We say the real world isn’t like the movies but in essence the real world owns all the same drama; deductions are deduced from a dearth of facts, glee is gleaned from an abundance of gossip and hurtful put-downs come disguised as hollow compliments.
The navigation of the rough terrain of school life, work life, social pressure, peer pressure and so much more besides needs a compass like no other. This should not be a solo journey.
Our youth is so very relevant, and our engagement with them must be too.
How do we ask anyone to be true when honesty can be misjudged? How do we address vulnerability when it’s deemed not safe to express it? And how is inner contentment secured when the power of comparison undermines it?
This is Shekinah’s remit; equipping people to deal meaningfully, relevantly and beneficially with young people. To help them overcome their challenges, confront their vulnerabilities and achieve their ambitions.
As parents, as adults, as teachers, it is easy to scream annoyance, hurtle demands and revert to the generation gap but Shekinah teaches another way. Shekinah paves the path to understanding our youth, because despite the open windows of social media and over-sharing, no one truly knows what goes behind closed doors.
And life is complicated.