Soap Boxes

I am not old. As a matter of fact, my physical body is only turning 30 this year. 

An event I am looking forward too with much anxiety. But I have been in the Pagan scene for a very long time and I have had the pleasure of working with some of the original people that started the movement as well as some of the new people that are sprouting everywhere.  My journey has been a jammed packed one. There is just about never a weekend that I am not busy. Remember, I also have a normal day job, I teach week nights, I am helping Paul with his Belly Dancing Academy by being a dancer for him in his October show and I still have to make time for all my non-Pagan people and family.

We have built up an amazing bunch of people in Paganism.  In the 14 years that I have been active I have taught over 300 people.  It must be close to if not more that 400 by now but who is counting. I have always been confident in what I do and what the future holds for this precious path.

However lately, I have been getting worried. I look at the majority of today’s young people and frankly I stress. Please note that I say majority and not all and by young I mean 22 and down.

It seems like young people are all extremely opinionated. Having an opinion is not wrong at all, but one should at least have an opinion that has something to do with matters at hand and then try to improve the matter at the best possible way for everyone, keeping in mind that you are not the only one that matters! It seems to me like they are on their own plack and can’t really be bothered by or with anyone. They want to constantly fight and argue and everything is a mission and in every situation they are the victims. They stand on their proverbial soapboxes and scream their Gospels as per their own minds to any and everyone who is willing to listen to the shit that spews from their mouths. They want to constantly bite each other in the ass by being better at everything, not granting anyone the opportunity to a ‘wow’ moment unless it is they themselves.

They speak to us, the current leaders, as if we have no fucking idea what we are doing and as if we are retards. They tell us all their wonderful ideas of things that they think will better matters. As if we have never attempted these things. I look at how they have so much to learn and yet they are unwilling to do it. They can be great, if they would just stop screaming and stop being a little bitch. I worry about the future, am I prepared to leave the fate of my Tradition in the hands of someone that screams so hectically from his or her soap box that no one really knows what they are on about. We can’t hear you!! Stop screaming and thinking you are so wonderful and join us mere mortals here on this plane and instead of criticizing the path we have created for you, try and have a conversation with us.

When you go on and on like you do, then no one can even hear you cuz they close themselves off and no one wants to be friends or associated with a fanatical Pagan. At the end of the day, you are just pissing people off for no reason.

So I asked Donna if I was ever like this. Since she was my first Teacher outside of my family.

Donna assures me that I was really bad. That I was militant on my soapbox. I look back and I realize that I am so goddamn thankful that somewhere along the line I grew up. I no longer have a soapbox but a tomato crate and I use it as a coffee table or bar counter, depending on who I am talking to. I read a quote that said:

“Yesterday I woke up with knowledge and wanted to change the world. Today I woke up with Wisdom and now I want to change myself”

I wish they would just get this! The world doesn’t owe you anything little one. It is what you make of your own situations. Your bad past should not be an excuse but a bar to measure yourself by. To be better and greater than that.

But after Donna told me that I was also once like that I develop a little more peace. Maybe there is still hope that they will eventually grow up. We can only hope and pray. Also as stated, not all of them are like this and the few that are not are really amazing individuals, but they are few and far between. 

Mwah!!