Then, On The Other Hand

Does there exist a social phenomenon
exemplified by adolescent angst
more fraught with adult irritation?
Children's propensity to view their
inner landscape as needful beyond
the grasp of parents' realization
exhibit a profound sense of self-
entitlement guaranteed to be met
with perplexed bedevilment.

Surely this emotional affliction
besets only offspring of socially
emancipated, economically-advanced
countries whose children have never
experienced deprivation and the
compelling drive toward advantage
leading inevitably to survival...?

Children who cannot conceive
of the desperation of endemic, deadly
disease, malnutrition, a stifling
of the yet-hopeful human spirit.
Little wonder exasperated parents
would admonish and remind their own
of starving children abroad. Witless
young remain fixated on their boredom,
not the distant reality of a workhouse.

Perhaps, on reflection, this malaise
is in truth a gift of nature's design.
Cleverly imposed and engaged to release
from the frustration of stasis, the
creative genius of a Socrates, a Galileo,
a da Vinci, an Einstein. Towering figures
of human intelligence and unsurpassed
achievement through creative drive.

Humankind designed in nature's image.